Information Processing Apparatus and Information Processing Method

ABSTRACT

An information apparatus is provided with: a comment processing unit that acquires, from an external posting site, a comment of a viewer by using a tag as a search key, the comment is a viewer&#39;s feedback on the content of a program being viewed and related to a tag for grouping with other comments; and a display processing unit that generates data to be displayed on a screen, the data include image of a program being broadcast by a first broadcasting station and at least one comment for a program being broadcast by a second broadcasting station different from the first broadcasting station.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a data processing technology and, moreparticularly, to a technology for displaying information regarding aprogram that is currently being broadcast.

2. Description of the Related Art

Recently, communication services through a website (hereinafter, alsoreferred to as a “posting site”) are provided that allows individualusers to post short sentences (hereinafter, also referred to as“comments” or “tweets”) and other users to view the comments.

The inventors of the present invention consider that no specific methodhas been fully suggested for providing an innovative viewing experienceto viewers, who are viewing a program currently broadcast, by displayingcomments posted on a posting site.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In this background, a main purpose of the present invention is toprovide an innovative viewing experience to viewers who are viewing aprogram currently broadcast.

An information processing apparatus according to one embodiment of thepresent invention comprises: an image information acquisition unitconfigured to acquire image information of at least one program among aplurality of programs being broadcast by a plurality of broadcastingstations; a comment acquisition unit configured to acquire, from anexternal posting site, a comment of a viewer by using a tag as a searchkey, the comment is a viewer's feedback on the content of a programbeing viewed and related to a tag for grouping with other comments; anda display processing unit configured to generate data to be displayed ona screen, the data include image of a program being broadcast by a firstbroadcasting station and at least one comment for a program beingbroadcast by a second broadcasting station different from the firstbroadcasting station.

Another embodiment of the present invention relates to an informationprocessing method. The information processing method performed by aninformation processing apparatus comprising: acquiring image informationof at least one program among a plurality of programs being broadcast bya plurality of broadcasting stations; acquiring, from an externalposting site, a comment of a viewer by using a tag as a search key, thecomment is a viewer's feedback on the content of a program being viewedand related to a tag for grouping with other comments; and generatingdata to be displayed on a screen, the data include image of a programbeing broadcast by a first broadcasting station and at least one commentfor a program being broadcast by a second broadcasting station differentfrom the first broadcasting station.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will now be described, by way of example only, withreference to the accompanying drawings that are meant to be exemplary,not limiting, and wherein like elements are numbered alike in severalfigures, in which:

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an information processing systemaccording to a form of the base technology;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of thetuner of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of theinformation management server of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows the structure of data stored in the tally result storageunit;

FIG. 5 shows the hardware configuration of the information processingapparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of theinformation processing apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 shows the structure of data stored in the program informationstorage unit;

FIG. 8 shows the structure of data stored in the recording informationstorage unit;

FIG. 9 shows an exemplary portal screen as displayed;

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary standby screen as displayed;

FIG. 11 shows an exemplary image display screen;

FIG. 12 shows an exemplary image display screen;

FIG. 13 shows an exemplary first program guide as displayed;

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary second program guide as displayed;

FIG. 15 shows an exemplary second program guide as displayed;

FIG. 16 shows an exemplary second program guide as displayed;

FIG. 17 shows an exemplary second program guide as displayed;

FIG. 18A shows an exemplary second program guide as displayed;

FIG. 18B shows an exemplary second program guide as displayed;

FIG. 19 shows an exemplary video screen showing a list of recordings;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing the operation of the informationprocessing apparatus;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing S20 of FIG. 20 in further detail;

FIG. 22 shows S24 of FIG. 20 in further detail;

FIG. 23 shows S28 of FIG. 20 in further detail;

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing the operation of the informationprocessing apparatus;

FIG. 25 shows an exemplary first program guide as displayed in anexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 26 shows the configuration of an information processing systemaccording to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of theinformation processing apparatus of FIG. 26;

FIG. 28 is a block diagram showing a comment storage unit of FIG. 27 infurther detail;

FIG. 29 shows the configuration of data stored in a fixed-commentstorage unit;

FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing a comment processing unit of FIG. 27in further detail;

FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing a comment displaying unit of FIG. 27in further detail;

FIG. 32 shows an exemplary image display screen as displayed;

FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing the operation of the informationprocessing apparatus of FIG. 26;

FIG. 34 shows an exemplary all-TL screen as displayed;

FIG. 35 shows an exemplary channel TL screen as displayed;

FIG. 36 shows an exemplary hashtag TL screen as displayed;

FIG. 37 is a flowchart that continues from FIG. 33;

FIG. 38 shows an exemplary tweet menu screen as displayed;

FIG. 39 shows an exemplary comment creating screen as displayed; and

FIG. 40 shows an exemplary information screen as displayed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention will now be described by reference to the preferredembodiments. This does not intend to limit the scope of the presentinvention, but to exemplify the invention.

(Base Technology)

A description is now given of the base technology before explaining theembodiment of the present invention. The base technology provides aninformation processing technology of improving the comfort andconvenience of a user viewing a program that is being broadcast or aprogram broadcast in the past. The information processing technologyincludes the following four technical elements.

A summary of the first technical element will be discussed. Conventionalelectronic program guides merely present summary information related toprograms and defined by broadcasting stations, etc. As such, they arenot necessarily convenient to use for viewers. The base technologyprovides a technology for providing an electronic program guide thatprovides excellent usability for viewers. For example, the electronicprogram guide of a form of the base technology provides a user interfacewhereby the convenience for viewers viewing program information isimproved.

A summary of the second technical element will be discussed. Currently,Internet connection is available in a growing number of households.Information appliances in possession of a viewer of a program areequipped with the capabilities of exchanging data with a server on theInternet. The base technology proposes a technology of providing anelectronic program guide that is based on data exchange over theInternet and designed to present information useful for viewers as wellas mere program summaries. For example, the electronic program guideaccording to a form of the base technology presents the popularityranking of a plurality of programs broadcast in the same time zone.

A summary of the third technical element will be discussed. The basetechnology provides a technology that implements a user-friendly userinterface in a portal screen that serves as a primary entrance tovarious functional screens including the display screen of an electronicprogram guide. For example, the portal screen according to a form of thebase technology provides latest information on program viewing usefulfor viewers of a program.

A summary of the fourth technical element will be discussed. The basetechnology provides a technology that provides a search result usefulfor a viewer viewing a program. For example, the program viewing screenaccording to a form of the base technology displays a result of Internetsearch using a keyword related to the program along with the image ofthe program.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an information processing systemaccording to a form of the base technology of the present invention. Aninformation processing system 100 is configured such that a plurality ofprogram viewing systems 10, an information management server 16, and asearch server 17 are connected via the Internet 15.

The program viewing system 10 allows viewing, recording, reproducing ofterrestrial television broadcast, and displaying of a program guide. Thesystem 10 comprises an information processing apparatus 11, a controller12, a tuner 13, and a display 14. In a form of the base technology, theprogram viewing system 10 represents a unit of “viewers”. Therefore, twoor more people watching the display 14 may be dealt with as one viewer.

The tuner 13 is a terrestrial television tuner. The tuner 13 receives abroadcast signal on a channel selected by the viewer and decodes thebroadcast signal into image information. The tuner 13 then sends theimage information to the information processing apparatus 11. The tuner13 also acquires EPG information (program information) from thebroadcast signal and sends the information to the information processingapparatus 11. The tuner 13 and the information processing apparatus 11may be connected by a universal serial bus (USB) cable.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of thetuner 13 of FIG. 1. The blocks shown in the block diagram areimplemented by hardware, i.e., components and mechanical devices, suchas CPU or memory of a computer, or by software such as a computerprogram. FIG. 2 depicts functional blocks implemented by the cooperationof hardware and software. Therefore, it will be obvious to those skilledin the art that the functional blocks may be implemented in a variety ofmanners by a combination of hardware and software.

The tuner 13 comprises a coaxial cable interface unit 200, a B-CAS(registered trademark) card interface unit 202, a USB interface unit204, and a signal processing unit 206. The coaxial cable interface unit200 functions as an interface with a coaxial cable connected to theantenna and acquires a broadcast signal of terrestrial televisionbroadcast. The B-CAS card interface unit 202 functions as an interfacewith a B-CAS card and acquires an encryption key for decoding thebroadcast signal from the B-CAS card.

The USB interface unit 204 functions as an interface with a USB cableand acquires identification information of the channel selected by theviewer from the information processing apparatus 11. Further, the unit204 sends image information on the selected channel and EPG informationto the information processing apparatus 11. The signal processing unit206 retrieves a signal on the channel selected by the viewer from thebroadcast signal and decodes the signal into image information accordingto the encryption key of the B-CAS card.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus 11 is acomputer terminal connected to the Internet 15 that acknowledges theviewer's operation via the controller 12 and is operated accordingly.The information processing apparatus 11 may be a desktop game device. Aprogram viewer application (hereinafter, also referred to as “programviewer AP”), for displaying and recording live transmission of a programbroadcast on terrestrial digital television and for playing backrecorded images, is installed in the information processing apparatus11. Also installed in the apparatus 11 is a web browser for interpretingdata for a structure document described in HTML, XML, etc. anddisplaying the result.

When the program viewer AP is started in the information processingapparatus 11, the information processing apparatus 11 may, for example,acquire image information on the channel selected by the viewer from thetuner 13 and display the program image on the display 14. The apparatus11 may also acquire EPG information from the tuner 13 and display anelectronic program guide on the display 14. The detailed configurationof the information processing apparatus 11 will be described later. Theinformation processing apparatus 11 and the display 14 may be connectedby a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI: registered trademark)cable.

The information management server 16 manages the status of viewingprograms acquired from the plurality of program viewing systems 10 anddelivers the viewing status to each of the program viewing systems 10.The detailed configuration of the information management server 16 willbe described later. The search server 17 provides a search service andsupplies the source originating a search request with informationindicating a web page with a high score of matching with the search keydesignated in the search request.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of theinformation management server 16 of FIG. 1. It will be appreciated to askilled person that the functional blocks of FIG. 3, like those of FIG.2, may be implemented in a variety of manners by a combination ofhardware and software. For example, the functional blocks of FIG. 3 maybe stored in a predetermined recording medium as computer programs. Theprograms may be installed in a hard disk of the information managementserver 16, read into a main memory of the information management server16, and run by a processor.

The information management server 16 comprises a communicationprocessing unit 20, a tally result storage unit 22, and a dataprocessing unit 24 for performing various data processes. The dataprocessing unit 24 may include a viewer tally unit 26, a programmedrecording tally unit 28, and an indicator providing unit 30.

The communication processing unit 20 performs a process of communicatingwith an external device via the Internet 15. The data processing unit 24exchanges data with the information processing apparatus 11 in theprogram viewing system 10 via the communication processing unit 20. Thetally result storage unit 22 is a storage area for storing dataindicating the tally score in the viewer tally unit 26 and theprogrammed recording tally unit 28 described later.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of data stored in the tally result storageunit 22. A program ID field is adapted to contain a program ID uniquelyidentifying a program broadcast on a specific date and time. Programsbroadcast on a periodical basis with the same program title are assigneddifferent ID's if broadcast on different time and date. It is assumedthat the program ID is defined in the EPG information. A viewer countfield is adapted to contain the total number of viewers currentlyviewing the program identified by the program ID. In a form of the basetechnology, the viewers are categorized according to the age group andsex. Each subfield is adapted to contain the total number in therespective category. A programmed recording count field is adapted tocontain the total number of viewers having programmed the recording ofthe program identified by the program ID, categorizing the viewersaccording to the age group and sex.

Referring back to FIG. 3, the viewer tally unit 26 acquires the programID of the program currently viewed by the viewer from each of theplurality of information processing apparatuses 11 on a periodical basisand adds up the number of viewers viewing each program. In a form of thebase technology, viewer attributes (i.e., age group and sex) areacquired along with the program ID. The number of viewers viewing theprogram identified by the program ID is added up for each viewerattribute so that the resultant score is stored in the tally resultstorage unit 22.

The programmed recording tally unit 28 acquires the program ID of theprogram that the viewer has programmed to record from each of theplurality of information processing apparatuses 11 on a periodical basisand adds up the number of recordings programmed. In a form of the basetechnology, viewer attributes are acquired along with the program ID.The number of recordings programmed for the program identified by theprogram ID is added up for each viewer attribute so that the resultantscore is stored in the tally result storage unit 22.

The indicator providing unit 30 supplies the information processingapparatus 11 with an indicator indicating the status of viewing programsin the information processing system 100. The indicator includes anindicator indicative of the number of viewers viewing a program(hereinafter, live indicator) and an indicator indicative of the numberof viewers that have programmed recordings of the program (hereinafter,programmed recording indicator).

More specifically, the indicator providing unit 30 transmits, as a liveindicator, the number of viewers, categorized according to the age groupand sex, stored in the tally result storage unit 22 to the informationprocessing apparatus 11. The unit 30 also transmits the number ofrecordings programmed, categorized according to the age group and sex,stored in the tally result storage unit 22 to the information processingapparatus 11.

In one variation, the unit 30 may supply, as a live indicator, theresult of entering the number of viewers in a predetermined evaluationfunction instead of the number of viewers itself. For example, thenumber of viewers of a given program relative to the total number ofviewers, i.e. the viewing rate, may be supplied. The same is true of theprogrammed recording indicator. For example, the number of programmedrecordings of a given program relative to the total number of viewers,i.e., the programmed recording rate, may be supplied as a programmedrecording indicator.

FIG. 5 shows the hardware configuration of the information processingapparatus 11 of FIG. 1. The information processing apparatus 11comprises, as basic components, a CPU 300, a graphic processor unit(GPU) 302, an input and output processor 304, an optical disk readingunit 306, a main memory 308, a mask ROM 310, and a sound processor 312.

The CPU 300 controls signal processing and internal components based onvarious programs such as a game, an e-mail program, and an applicationfor a web browser. The CPU 300 may be a multicore CPU such as a CELL.Alternatively, the CPU 300 may be a heterogeneous multicore CPU in whicha plurality of heterogeneous processor cores are combined.

The GPU 302 performs image processing. The input and output processor304 performs a process for interfacing between an external device andinternal components, or a process for maintaining downwardcompatibility. The optical disk reading unit 306 reads from an opticaldisk such as a BD, DVD, and CD in which an application program ormultimedia data is recorded. The main memory 308 functions as a bufferthat temporarily stores data read from a work area of the CPU 300 or theoptical disk. The mask ROM 310 primarily stores an operating systemprogram run by the CPU 300 or the input and output processor 304. Thesound processor 312 processes a sound signal.

The information processing apparatus 11 also comprises a CD/DVD/BDprocessor 314, an optical disk reproducing driver 316, a mechanicalcontroller 318, a hard disk drive 334, and a card connector (e.g., a PCcard slot) 320. The CD/DVD/BD processor 314 applies an error correction(e.g., cross interleave Reed-Solomon coding (CIRC)) process or anexpanding and decoding process on a disk signal read by the optical diskreading unit 306 from a CD/DVD/BD and amplified by an RF amplifier 328.Thereby, the data recorded in the CD/DVD/BD is reproduced (restored).The optical disk reproducing driver 316 and the mechanical controller318 control the rotation of the spindle motor of the optical diskreading unit 306, focusing/tracking of an optical pickup, and loading ofa disk tray.

The hard disk drive 334 stores data saved from an application program orgame read from the optical disk reading unit 306, or stores data such asphotos, moving images, and music acquired via the input and outputprocessor 304. The card connector 320 is a connection port for acommunication card, an external hard disk drive 336, etc.

These components are primarily connected to each other via bus lines322, 324, etc. The CPU 300 and the GPU 302 are connected via a dedicatedbus. The CPU 300 and the input and output processor 304 are connectedvia SBUS. The input and output processor 304 is connected to theCD/DVD/BD processor 314, the mask ROM 310, the sound processor 312, thecard connector 320, and the hard disk drive 334 via SSBUS.

The CPU 300 controls the overall operation of the information processingapparatus 11 by running the operating system program for the CPU storedin the mask ROM 310. The CPU 300 reads various data from an optical disksuch as CD, DVD, BD, etc. and loads the data into the main memory 308.The CPU 300 may also run various application programs downloaded via acommunication network and control games, creation/editing of e-mailmessages, or an operation like web page browsing.

The input and output processor 304 runs an operating system program forthe input and output processor stored in the mask ROM 310 and therebycontrols input and output. For example, the processor 304 controls theinput and output of use-generated signals or game settings from thecontroller 12, contents or addresses of e-mail messages, or data from amemory card 326 adapted to store web site URLs, etc.

Further, the input and output processor 304 controls data input andoutput via a USB connection terminal 333, a network card 330, anIEEE1394 terminal or a PC card slot (not shown), etc. For example, theprocessor 304 may be connected to the tuner 13 via the USB connectionterminal 333 or connected to the Internet 15 via the network card 330.The processor 304 may also perform data input and output through thememory card 326 via the PC card slot (not shown). Information from thecontroller 12 or the memory card is mediated by an interface 332 whichincludes a multimedia slot and a wireless transmission/reception port.

For example, the wireless transmission/reception port communicates witha game controller or a BD/DVD operation controller using wireless LAN orBluetooth (registered trademark). The interface 332 is also providedwith an interfere with an HDMI (registered trademark) cable and outputsimage data to the display 14 via the interface.

The GPU 302 is provided with the function of a geometry transfer enginefor processes like coordinate conversion and the function of a renderingprocessor. The GPU 302 renders an image in accordance with a renderinginstruction from the CPU 300 and stores the rendered image in a framebuffer (not shown). For example, given that an application programstored in an optical disk uses three-dimensional (3D) graphics (e.g., agame program), the GPU 302 computes the coordinates of polygons formingthree-dimensional objects by performing geometric computation. In therendering process, the GPU 301 performs computation to generate an imageobtained by capturing the three-dimensional object with a virtualcamera, i.e., computation for perspective transformation (computation ofcoordinate values occurring when the vertices of polygons forming thethree dimensional object are projected onto a virtual camera screen).The image data ultimately obtained is written in the frame buffer. TheGPU 302 outputs a video signal corresponding to the image thusgenerated.

The sound processor 312 is provided with functions for adaptivedifferential pulse code modulation (ADPCM) decoding, audio signalreproduction, signal modulation, etc. The ADPCM decoding function is afunction of reconstructing and outputting an audio signal for soundeffects, etc. by reading waveform data stored in a sound buffer (notshown) built in the sound processor 312 or externally coupled to theprocessor 312. The signal modulation function also functions as asampling sound source capable of generating an audio signal for musicalsound, sound effects, etc. from the waveform data stored in the soundbuffer.

When the information processing apparatus 11 having the configuration asdescribed above is turned on, the operating system programs for the CPU300 and for the input and output processor 304 are read from the maskROM 310. The CPU 300 and the input and output processor 304 run thecorresponding operating system programs. This allows the CPU 300 tocontrol the components of the information processing apparatus 11 in acoordinated manner. The input and output processor 304 controls theinput and output of signals from and to the controller 12, the memorycard 326, etc.

Upon starting the operating system program, the CPU 300 performs aninitialization process such as verification of the operation. The CPU300 then controls the optical disk reading unit 306 to read anapplication program such as a game stored in the optical disk and loadthe program in the main memory 308, and then runs, for example, the gameapplication program. When the game application program is run, the CPU300 controls the GPU 302 and the sound processor 312 in accordance witha user instruction acknowledged from the controller 12 via the input andoutput processor 304, so as to control the display of images, andgeneration of sound effects or musical sound, etc.

For example, when a movie stored in the optical disk is played back, theCPU 300 controls the GPU 302 and the sound processor 312 in accordancewith a user instruction (command) acknowledged from the controller viathe input and output processor 304, so as to control the display ofimages, generation of sound effects or musical sound, etc in the movieplayed back from the optical disk.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of theinformation processing apparatus 11 of FIG. 1. As in FIG. 2, it will beobvious to those skilled in the art that the functional blocks of FIG. 6may be implemented in a variety of manners by a combination of hardwareand software. For example, the functional blocks of FIG. 6 may be storedin a predetermined recording medium as computer programs. The programsmay be installed in a hard disk drive 334 of FIG. 5, read into the mainmemory 308 of the information processing apparatus 11, and run by theCPU 300. In other words, it can be said that the functional blocks ofFIG. 6 show various modules forming the program viewing AP.

The information processing apparatus 11 is provided with an externalinterface unit 40, a data storage unit 48, and a data processing unit56. The external interface unit 40 provides an interface with variousexternal devices. The data processing unit 56 exchanges data with anexternal device via the external interface unit 40. The externalinterface unit 40 includes a tuner IF unit 41, a communicationprocessing unit 42, an operation detection unit 44, and a display dataoutput unit 46.

The tuner IF unit 41 provides an interface with the tuner 13 and sendsdata acknowledged from the tuner 13 to the data processing unit 56. Thecommunication processing unit 42 runs a process of communicating withthe information management server 16 and the search server 17 via theInternet 15. The operation detection unit 44 detects a viewer operationof the controller 12 and sends the content of operation to the dataprocessing unit 56. The display data output unit 46 sends the data forvideos and images for display sent from a display processing unit 78(described later) to the display 14 to display the videos and imagesaccordingly.

The data storage unit 48 is a storage area for storing data and may beimplemented as a hard disk drive and data stored therein. The datastorage unit 48 includes a program information storage unit 50, arecording information storage unit 52, and a thumbnail storage unit 54.

The program information storage unit 50 stores program information on aplurality of programs that should be displayed in the electronic programguide. FIG. 7 shows the structure of data stored in the programinformation storage unit 50. A program summary field is adapted tocontain summary information on the program. A popularity rank field isadapted to temporarily contain the relative popularity of each of aplurality of programs broadcast in the same time zone.

Referring back to FIG. 6, the recording information storage unit 52stores recording information related to the recording of programs in theinformation processing apparatus 11. FIG. 8 shows the structure of datastored in the recording information storage unit 52. A recording IDfield is adapted to contain a recording ID uniquely identifying therecorded content in the information processing apparatus 11.

A recording flag field of FIG. 6 is adapted to contain a flag indicatingwhether the recording process is completed or whether an error occurredduring the recording process. For example, a record “done” in therecording flag field indicates that the recording is completed, and arecord “not done” in the recording flag field indicates that therecording is programmed. A playback progress rate field is adapted tocontain a value indicating the progress of playback of the recordedcontent, i.e., the percentage of the recorded content already playedback. For example, the playback progress rate “0%” in a record indicatesthat the recorded content has not been played back at all. A contentdata field is adapted to contain data of the recorded content itself,i.e., data for the images of the program recorded.

Referring back to FIG. 6, the thumbnail storage unit 54 stores data fora thumbnail image showing a part of the image included in the recordedcontent on a reduced scale, associating the data with the recording IDof the recorded content. A thumbnail image may be a still image or amoving image.

A physical storage area for the data storage unit 48 to store the datamay be the hard disk drive 334 built in the information processingapparatus 11, the external hard disk drive 336, or the memory card 326.The external hard disk drive 336 may store only the recorded informationof a relatively large data size (particularly, the data in the contentdata field). The storage area for storing the respective data may bedetermined as needed according to the operation of the viewer.

The data processing unit 56 is a functional block for performing dataprocessing and may be implemented as a module of a computer program. Thedata processing unit 56 includes a program image acquisition unit 58, aprogram information acquisition unit 60, an attribute acquisition unit62, a recording processing unit 64, a playback processing unit 66, anindicator acquisition unit 68, a popularity determination unit 70, athumbnail setting unit 72, a search key acquisition unit 74, a searchexecution unit 76, a display processing unit 78, and a viewing statuscommunicating unit 99.

The program image acquisition unit 58 acquires image information of aprogram sent from the tuner 13. The program information acquisition unit60 acquires EPG information sent from the tuner 13 and stores theprogram information of the programs in the program information storageunit 50.

The attribute acquisition unit 62 acquires attribute information of theviewer entered by the viewer, e.g., the age and sex of the viewer. Forexample, the unit 62 may acquire the attribute information from apredetermined storage area adapted to store the attribute informationentered by the viewer in a setting screen of the information processingapparatus 11.

The recording processing unit 64 programs the recording of a programdesignated by the viewer and records the program accordingly. Moreover,the unit 64 updates the recording information in the recordinginformation storage unit 52 as appropriate. For example, the recordingflag is set to “not done” in the programmed recording process. In therecording process, the image data for the program to be recorded issuccessively recorded in the content data field. When the recordingprocess is completed normally, the recording flag is set to “done”. Whenan error occurs in the recording process, the recording flag is set to“error”.

When the target program being recorded is ranked at or higher than acertain rank in the ranking of popularity as determined by thepopularity determination unit 70 described later, e.g., when the programis ranked as the third most popular program or higher, the recordingprocessing unit 64 indicates as such in the recorded content. In a formof the base technology, a chapter is inserted into the recorded contentwhen the program is ranked at or higher than a certain rank in theranking of popularity.

The playback processing unit 66 plays back the recorded content bysending the image data for the content designated by the viewer to thedisplay processing unit 78. In association with this, the unit 66updates the recording information in the recording information storageunit 52 as appropriate in accordance with the status of playback of therecorded content. For example, the processing unit 66 sets the rate ofplayback time relative to the recorded time in the playback progressrate field.

The playback processing unit 66 may play back only the popular scene inthe program originating the recorded content, in accordance with aninstruction from the viewer. For example, the unit 66 may play back onlythe portion preceding and succeeding the insertion of the chapter by therecording processing unit 64 for a predetermined period of time.Alternatively, changes in the ranking of popularity as determined by thepopularity determination unit 70 described later may be stored in thedata storage unit 481. The playback processing unit 66 may play backonly the portion of the program originating the recorded content rankedat or higher than a certain rank in the ranking of popularity.

The indicator acquisition unit 68 acquires a live indicator and aprogrammed recording indicator from the information management server16. Typically, the live indicator and the programmed recording indicatorare acquired when the display processing unit 78 starts displaying anelectronic program guide. The latest live indicator and the programmedrecording indicator are acquired when an elapse of a predeterminedinterval period is detected.

The popularity determination unit 70 determines the ranking of relativepopularity of a plurality of programs broadcast in the same time zone inaccordance with the live indicator and/or the programmed recordingindicator. In a form of the base technology, the larger the sum of thelive indicator and the programmed recording indicator, the higher theprogram is ranked. Since the live indicator is not available for aprogram not broadcast yet, the ranking of popularity is determined onlyon the basis of the programmed recording indicator. After determiningthe ranking of popularity of programs, the popularity determination unit70 updates the data in the popularity rank field forming the programinformation in the program information storage unit 50.

When the population in which the ranking of popularity should bedetermined is designated by the user, the popularity determination unit70 determines the ranking of popularity in accordance with the liveindicator and the programmed recording indicator associated with thedesignated attribute (in this case, age group and sex). When thepopulation is not designated, the ranking of popularity is determined inaccordance with the sum of live indicators across the attributes and thesum of programmed recording indicators across the attributes.

The popularity determination unit 70 may output the indicator itselfacquired by the indicator acquisition unit 68 as data indicating thedegree of popularity without determining the ranking popularity. In thiscase, the indicator itself is dealt with as the ranking of popularity.

Upon detecting that the recording process is completed in the recordingprocessing unit 64, the thumbnail setting unit 72 refers to therecording information in the recording information storage unit 52 andsets a thumbnail image showing a moving image or still image stored ascontent data on a reduced scale. The unit 72 stores the data for thethumbnail image in the thumbnail storage unit 54, associating the datawith the recording ID.

Of the plurality of images stored as content data, the thumbnail settingunit 72 according to a form of the base technology sets a thumbnailimage from the image of a popular scene in the program originating therecorded content. For example, a thumbnail image may be created from animage immediately preceding or succeeding the insertion of a chapter bythe recording processing unit 64. Alternatively, changes in the rankingof popularity as determined by the popularity determination unit 70 maybe stored in the data storage unit 48 so that the thumbnail setting unit72 may create a thumbnail image from the image occurring when theprogram originating the recorded content is ranked the highest.

The search key acquisition unit 74 acquires the ID of the program beingdisplayed on the display 14 from a program image displaying unit 84 andacquires, as a search key, program information associated with theprogram ID from the program information storage unit 50. The programbeing displayed may be a program broadcast live or a recorded program.The program information used as a search key may be the program title orthe name of a performer. Alternatively, the information may be a nounphrase extracted appropriately from a character string of the summaryinformation by, for example, morphological analysis.

The search key may not be limited to a key word. The search keyacquisition unit 74 may acquire data of another format (e.g., image dataetc. included in the program information) as a search key. In otherwords, data of an arbitrary format permitted by the search server 17 maybe acquired. Alternatively, the search key acquisition unit 74 may set asearch key using a plurality of elements in the program information asAND conditions. Still alternatively, the unit 74 may send the respectiveelements as search keys to the search execution unit 76 or causes theunit 76 to perform a plurality of search processes successively. Stillalternatively, when the program information of the program beingdisplayed is updated, the unit 74 may acquire a new search key from theprogram information as updated and causes the search execution unit 76to perform a new search.

The search execution unit 76 transmits a search request designating thesearch key acquired by the search key acquisition unit 74 to the searchserver 17. The unit 76 acquires, as a search result, a combination ofthe matching score with the search key and an URL of a web page. Thesearch execution unit 76 acquires the data for the web page determinedby the search server 17 to have the highest matching score with thesearch key, based on the URL. The unit 76 then sends the data for theweb page to the display processing unit 78.

The display processing unit 78 causes the display 14 to display an imagedesired by the viewer by sending the data for a moving image or stillimage that should be displayed on the display 14 to the data output unit46. The display processing unit 78 includes a portal screen displayingunit 80, a standby screen displaying unit 82, a program image displayingunit 84, a search result displaying unit 86, a program guide displayingunit 88, and a video control screen displaying unit 96.

The portal screen displaying unit 80 displays a portal screen thatserves as a primary source of transition a plurality of types of viewingscreens or control screens. The portal screen is a top, frontend screendisplayed without exception when any of a plurality of types of viewingscreens or control screens is displayed. The portal screen serves as acommon entrance to these screens. The plurality of types of viewingscreens and control screens include a television screen for viewing theimage from a program (hereinafter, also simply referred to as “liveimage”) currently broadcast on terrestrial digital television, a videoscreen for playing back a recorded program, and a setting screen forentering various settings for the program viewing AP.

FIG. 9 shows an exemplary portal screen as displayed. On-screenselection icons 102 are for selecting from a plurality of types ofviewing screens or control screens provided by the program viewing AP.The icons 102 include a TV icon 102 a, . . . , and a setting icon 102 h.When the TV icon 102 a is selected, transition is made to a TV screen.When a program guide icon 102 b is selected, transition is made to anEPG screen displaying an electronic program guide. When a ranking icon102 c is selected, transition is made to a ranking screen displaying aranking of programs in popularity.

When a schedule icon 102 d is selected, transition is made to a schedulescreen for viewing a schedule (e.g., programmed recording). When a videoicon 102 e is selected, transition is made to a video screen. When aprogram search icon 102 f is selected, transition is made to a programsearch screen for searching for a program being broadcast or scheduledto be broadcast. When a manual icon 102 g is selected, transition ismade to a manual screen displaying a manual related to the operation ofthe program viewing AP. When a setting icon 102 h is selected,transition is made to a setting screen.

A latest information pop 104 represents a pop-up display of the latestinformation corresponding to the type of on-screen selection icon 102that is selectable. Referring to FIG. 9, the TV icon 102 a is being madeselectable. The latest information pop 104, indicating the status ofviewing by other viewers of the program currently broadcast, isdisplayed in association with the TV icon 102 a. For example, the portalscreen displaying unit 80 may display in the latest information pop 104the title of the program ranked No. 1 by the popularity determinationunit 70 among the programs current broadcast.

By way of another example, the portal screen displaying unit 80 maydisplay in the latest information pop 104, which is displayed inassociation with the schedule icon 102 d, the number of currentlyprogrammed recordings or the title of the program programmed to berecorded. The unit 80 may display a currently available hard disk spaceor time available for recording in the latest information pop 104displayed in association with the video icon 102 e.

A status tag 106 indicates the viewing status of the recorded content(in other words, the viewing status based on the video-relatedoperation). The tag 106 includes an error situation tag 106 a, aunviewed tag 106 b, a programmed recording tag 106 c. In the event of anerror during a recording process in the recording processing unit 64,the portal screen displaying unit 80 displays the situation in the errorsituation tag 106 a. The unit 80 also refers to the recordinginformation stored in the recording information storage unit 52 anddisplays the number of recorded contents that are recorded and notplayed back yet (0% playback progress rate) in the unviewed tag 106 b.The unit 80 also refers to the recording information and displays thenumber of programmed recordings not yet processed in the programmedrecording tag 106 c.

A recorded content thumbnail 108 is a thumbnail image of each recordedcontent. One thumbnail image is displayed per one recorded content. Theportal screen displaying unit 80 acquires a thumbnail image of therecorded content that should be displayed from the thumbnail storageunit 54 and sets the image in the portal screen. Recorded contentthumbnails 108 for the entirety of the recorded contents may bedisplayed. Alternatively, thumbnail images of only those recordedcontents with 100% playback progress rate may be displayed, or thumbnailimages of only those recorded contents with 0% playback progress ratemay be displayed.

Referring back to FIG. 6, the standby screen displaying unit 82 displaysa standby screen. The standby screen is a screen displayed when a vieweroperation is not detected for a predetermined period of time (e.g., 30seconds) or more in the portal screen. The standby screen could beequated with a screen saver. When a user operation using the controller12 is detected while the standby screen is being displayed, the standbyscreen displaying unit 82 terminates the display of the standby screenso that the portal screen displaying unit 80 displays the portal screenagain.

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary standby screen as displayed. In the standbyscreen, the standby screen displaying unit 82 displays an image of athree-dimensional space in which each of the on-screen selection icons102 and the recorded content thumbnails 108 is displayed in varyingmanner, changing its position, angle, and size.

The standby screen displaying unit 82 refers to the recordinginformation in the recording information storage unit 52 so as to changethe mode of display of the recorded content thumbnail 108 correspondingto the recorded content in accordance with the attribute of the recordedcontent. For example, the recorded content with the recording date andtime closer to the current date and time may be indicated by a recordedcontent thumbnail 108 displayed in a varying mode assumed to attractmore attention of the viewer. More specifically, the target recordedcontent thumbnail 108 may be displayed on a scale larger than the otherrecorded content thumbnails 108. Alternatively, the target recordedcontent thumbnail 108 may be allowed to change its mode of display morerapidly than the other recorded content thumbnails 108.

Referring back to FIG. 6, the program image displaying unit 84 displaysthe image of the program on the display 14. For example, when the TVicon 102 a is selected in the portal screen, the unit 84 displays thelive image of the program acquired by the program image acquisition unit58. When the video icon 102 e is selected in the portal screen andplayback of the recorded content is requested in the video screen at thedestination of transition, the unit 84 displays the image of therecorded content acknowledged from the playback processing unit 66.

The program image displaying unit 84 displays a control icon foracknowledging a viewer operation in the television screen or the videoscreen (hereinafter, generically referred to as “image display screen”)displaying the image of a program. FIG. 11 shows an exemplary imagedisplay screen 110. Control icons 112 in the figure include a searchicon 112 a for initiating an Internet search using information relatedto the program as a key. Selection of the search icon 112 a represents atrigger for starting a process in the search key acquisition unit 74 andthe search execution unit 76.

Referring back to FIG. 6, the search result displaying unit 86 displayson a browser screen data for the web page acknowledged from the searchexecution unit 76 as a search result. The browser screen is a screen inwhich the web browser is running

FIG. 12 shows an exemplary image display screen 110. As shown in thefigure, the image display screen 110, and a browser screen 114displaying the search result using the information on the program beingdisplayed in the image display screen 110 as a key are displayed on thedisplay 14 at the same time. Referring to the figure, the program homepage is displayed in the browser screen 114. When the search resultdisplaying unit 86 performs a new search, the search result displayingunit 86 updates the displayed content in the browser screen 114,displaying the result of the new search in the browser screen 114.

Referring back to FIG. 6, the program guide displaying unit 88 performsa process of displaying an electronic program guide. The program guidedisplaying unit 88 includes a cursor displaying unit 90, a first programguide displaying unit 92, and a second program guide displaying unit 94.The cursor displaying unit 90 displays a cursor that allows the viewerto select a specific program in the electronic program guide and movesthe cursor in accordance with the viewer operation. The viewer selectsan area in which information on a program is displayed (hereinafter,also referred to as “program frame”) in the electronic program guide, byusing the controller 12 to move the cursor. The program frame can besaid to be a cell area formed by a time axis and a channel axis.

When a predetermined viewer operation is acknowledged while a program isbeing displayed by the program image displaying unit 84, the firstprogram guide displaying unit 92 refers to the program information inthe program information storage unit 50 and displays the first programguide, superimposing the guide on the program image. The first programguide includes an arrangement of program information on a plurality ofprograms currently broadcast in the respective channels. The firstprogram guide displaying unit 92 displays the first program guide,setting a transparency rate so that the program image in the backgroundis viewable to the viewer.

In a form of the base technology, the first program guide displayingunit 92 displays the first program guide in which only the informationon the currently broadcast programs is arranged. When a programdisplayed in a program frame ends, the first program guide displayingunit 92 displays information on a subsequently broadcast program in theprogram frame.

FIG. 13 shows an exemplary first program guide 116 as displayed. Thefirst program guide 116 shows program frames 118 corresponding to aplurality of channels. The channel name and the program title aredisplayed in each program frame 118. The first program guide displayingunit 92 refers to the program information on the programs and displaysobjects indicating the rank of popularity (hereinafter, also referred toas “popularity rank indicator”) in the program frames 118 for thetop-ranking three programs, associating the objects with the programs.In one variation, the rank of popularity of each program may besuggested to the viewer by varying the color in the program frame 118,the character font of the program information, or the like. The firstprogram guide displaying unit 92 refers to the program information ofthe respective programs periodically (e.g., once in one minute) andupdates the popularity rank indicators accordingly.

The cursor displaying unit 90 displays a cursor 120 for selecting theprogram frame 118. The viewer uses the cursor 112 to select the programframe 118 for the program for which the viewer wishes to view theprogram content or the progress status. The first program guidedisplaying unit 92 acquires a program summary of the programcorresponding to the program frame 118 selected by the cursor 120(hereinafter, also referred to as “temporarily selected program”) fromthe program information storage unit 50 and displays the summary in theprogram summary field 124, allowing the scrolling of the display. Whenthe cursor 120 is moved downward in a given program frame 118, the firstprogram guide displaying unit 92 may display information on the programbroadcast after the currently broadcast program in the program frame118.

The first program guide displaying unit 92 computes the degree ofprogress of the program, based on the broadcast start time, thebroadcast end time, and the current time of the temporarily selectedprogram and displays the degree in a progress indicator 126. In onevariation, the unit 92 may indicate the degree of progress of eachprogram to the viewer by varying the mode of display in the plurality ofprogram frames 118 displayed in the first program guide 116 inaccordance with the degree of progress of the programs.

Further, the first program guide displaying unit 92 displays apopularity transition indicator 128 of the temporarily selected program.When the latest popularity rank of the temporarily selected program isacquired, the first program guide displaying unit 92 sets a popularitytransition indicator 128 to show the status of transition as comparedwith the past popularity rank (e.g., rise, decline, no change).

When a predetermined viewer operation (e.g., depression of a designatedbutton in the controller 12) is initiated by the viewer for thetemporarily selected program in the first program guide 116, the dataprocessing unit 56 acknowledges that the temporarily selected program isdesignated as a formally selected program. This causes the program imagedisplaying unit 84 to switch the program image displayed in the imagedisplay screen 110 to the image of the formally selected program. Forexample, the program image acquisition unit 58 acquires the imageinformation on the formally selected program from the tuner 13, and theprogram image displaying unit 84 displays the program image of theformally selected program on the display 14.

The first program guide displaying unit 92 may further display the liveindicator and/or the programmed recording indicator providing the groundfor the current popularity rank, associating the indicator with theprogram for which the popularity rank indicator is displayed or thetemporarily selected program (not shown in FIG. 13). According to thisembodiment the viewer can view the data itself that indicates the actualstatus of viewing, in addition to the popularity rank, which is anabstraction of the viewing status of the program.

Referring back to FIG. 6, the second program guide displaying unit 94displays the second program guide in the entirety of the screen of thedisplay 14, when the program guide icon 102 b is selected in the portalscreen. The second program guide shows an arrangement of programinformation on a plurality of programs, using the time axis covering aplurality of time zones as a vertical axis and using the channel axiscovering a plurality of channels as a horizontal axis.

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary second program guide as displayed. The figureshows the second program guide showing program information covering 24hours. A channel indicator 130 is an identifier object for identifying achannel on terrestrial digital television. A channel interval 131 isarranged between adjacent channels. The mode of displaying a programframe may be changed for each time zone (e.g., each three hours) so thatthe viewer can have knowledge of programs broadcast in the same timezone. For example, the color or character font of the program frame maybe changed.

The second program guide displaying unit 94 enlarges or reduces the areafor the program frame in the second program guide in accordance with aviewer operation. More specifically, the unit 94 enlarges or reduces thesize of the program frame per unit time or enlarges or reduces the sizeof the program frame per channel. Associated with this, the volume ofprogram information that can be displayed in each program frame isincreased or decreased. For example, the mode of displaying the secondprogram guide may be switched such that “vertical axis=24 hrs,horizontal axis=9 channels”, “vertical axis=5 hrs, horizontal axis=7channels”, “vertical axis=3 hrs, horizontal axis=5 channels”, or“vertical axis=2 hrs, horizontal axis=3 channels”.

The second program guide displaying unit 94 displays “the program titleof the program started to be broadcast” on the first line of the programframe in the second program guide, and displays the program summary inthe second and subsequent lines. In the second program guide where“vertical axis=24 hrs, horizontal axis=9 channels”, the program framefor a 30-minute program is displayed so as to consume a minimum unit ofdisplay, i.e., a single line. Thus, the program information for aprogram that lasts less than 30 minutes is displayed in a balloon inaccordance with the movement of a cursor 132 described later.

The cursor displaying unit 90 displays a cursor 132 for selecting aprogram frame. The viewer uses the cursor 132 to select the programframe of a program for which the viewer wishes to know more detailedinformation or a program that the viewer desires to control for viewing.The program highlighted by the cursor 132 is designated as a temporarilyselected program. The second program guide displaying unit 94 enlargesthe program frame of the temporarily selected program in the directionof channel axis, i.e., displays the frame in a larger size than theother program frames. Further, the second program guide displaying unit94 displays the program summary of the temporarily selected program in aprogram summary field 134, allowing the scrolling of the display.

FIG. 15 also shows an exemplary second program guide as displayed. Thefigure shows that the temporarily selected program of FIG. 14 isdesignated as the formally selected program by a predetermined useroperation. The viewer performs a desired operation for viewing theformally selected program by selecting control icons 138 such as aprogrammed recording icon 138 a or a program viewing icon 138 b.

The second program guide displaying unit 94 displays program informationon the formally selected program (e.g., channel name, broadcastingstation name, program title, broadcast date and time, viewing status,program summary) in a program detail window 136. The viewing statusindicator 137 shows the number of viewers of the formally selectedprogram. More specifically, the live indicator, the programmed recordingindicator, or a total thereof may be displayed. When the formallyselected program is designated, the second program guide displaying unit94 displays the program detail window 136, superimposing the window 136on the second program guide in a pop-up mode of display and displayingthe second program guide in the background in a reduced image quality.For example, the second program guide may be displayed in a blurredmanner by removing high-frequency components from the image data for thesecond program guide. Alternatively, a semitransparent object may bedisplayed on the image of the second program guide.

A description will now be given of a variation adapted for a case wherethe display 14 is a 3D display capable of stereographic display. Theimage of the program frame of the program selected by the cursor 132,i.e., the temporarily selected program, and/or the image of the programdetail window 136, as displayed by the second program guide displayingunit 94 may be a parallax view split temporarily or spatially.

For example, when the viewer wears eyeglasses with a shutter, atemporally split parallax view may be displayed, and, when the viewerwears eyeglasses with a polarization plate, a spatially split parallaxview may be displayed. Typically, the program frame of the temporarilyselected program and/or the program detail window 136 is displayed infront of the second program guide.

According to this variation, viewability of the program frame of thetemporarily selected program and/or the program detail window 136 isincreased. Whether a parallax view is displayed or the mode of parallaxview may be preset by the viewer. Alternatively, the informationprocessing apparatus 11 may detect the type of the display 14 anddetermine dynamically in accordance with the type.

FIG. 16 also shows an exemplary second program guide as displayed. Thefigure shows the second program guide displayed after the recording ofthe formally selected program is programmed in FIG. 15. The secondprogram guide displaying unit 94 displays a program frame 140 of theprogram programmed to be recorded in a predetermined mode indicatingthat the recording of the program has been programmed. Associated withthis, a programmed recording line 142 is displayed in the channelinterval 131 of the time zone in which the recording of the program isprogrammed so as to indicate that the program is programmed to berecorded in the time zone. The second program guide displaying unit 94may display a line object indicating a current time in the secondprogram guide in a similar mode as the programmed recording line 142.The provision is particularly useful when the information on the programbroadcast already continues to be displayed in the second program guide.

Further, the second program guide displaying unit 94 temporarilydisplays a setting window for setting the character font of the secondprogram guide on the display 14 along with the second program guide.FIG. 17 shows an exemplary second program guide as displayed. When aparticular character font is designated by the viewer in the settingwindow 144, the second program guide displaying unit 94 immediatelyreflects the designated character font in the second program guide. Inother words, the second program guide as displayed is switched to theguide in which program information is shown using the designatedcharacter font. FIG. 17 shows an example in which the character size ischanged. Alternatively, the character style, i.e., the type face, may besimilarly changed.

The second program guide displaying unit 94 scrolls the second programguide in the time axis direction or the channel axis direction inaccordance with the movement of the cursor 132 in the second programguide, thereby switching the displayed content in the second programguide. As regards the program frame a part of which is no longerdisplayed as a result of the scrolling in the time axis direction andwhich shows a program that has not been completely broadcast yet, thesecond program guide displaying unit 94 displays the program informationthat should be displayed in that program frame in an area that remainsdisplayed after the scrolling, starting at the head of the programinformation. In other words, the unit 94 displays “broadcast start timeindicated by minutes+program title” in preference to the programsummary.

FIGS. 18A and 18B show exemplary second program guide as displayed. Inthis case, it is assumed that the current time is 17:45. FIG. 18A showsthe second program guide displayed before scrolling. The figure shows aprogram guide for a time zone 16:00-20:00. Meanwhile, FIG. 18B shows thesecond program guide displayed after scrolling. The figure shows aprogram guide for a time zone 17:00-21:00. When the cursor 132 is moveddownward in FIG. 18A, the display is switched to FIG. 18B.

The display area of program frames 146, 147, and 148 of FIG. 18B isreduced as compared to the status in FIG. 18A. Since the program of theprogram frame 146 is currently broadcast, the second program guidedisplaying unit 94 displays as much of the program information as can befitted in the area of the program frame 146 that remains displayed,starting at the head of the information. In other words, the positionwhere the program information as displayed starts is shifted to the headof the remaining area.

Meanwhile, since the programs for the program frames 147 and 148 havealready been broadcast, the second program guide displaying unit 94 doesnot change the position where the program information as displayedstarts. The second program guide displaying unit 94 may display theprogram information of the program that has already been broadcast in amode not so noticeable as that of the program information of the programnot completely broadcast yet (e.g., using a light gray character color),and may not change the position where the program information starts inthe program frame displayed in that mode.

Referring back to FIG. 6, when the video icon 102 e is selected in theportal screen, the video control screen displaying unit 96 displays avideo screen for controlling the operation of recording/playing back theprogram on the display 14. The video control screen displaying unit 96includes a recording list displaying unit 98. The recording listdisplaying unit 98 displays a list of recordings that includesinformation on recorded content and a list of programmed recordings.

FIG. 19 shows an exemplary video screen showing a list of recordings. Alist of recordings 150 shows a list of titles, recoded date and time,status, and playback progress rate of the recorded programs. A statusfield contains information indicating the status of recorded content.For example, the information may indicate whether the content isrecorded, programmed to be recorded, or whether an error has occurred. Aplayback progress rate field contains a value indicating the degree ofprogress of the playback of the recorded content. The video controlscreen displaying unit 96 refers to the recording information in therecording information storage unit 52 to set values in the respectivefields of the list of recordings. When a playback button 152 is selectedby the viewer, the playback processing unit 66 starts playing back therecorded content corresponding to the playback button 152.

In one variation, the list of recordings in the video screen may containonly the information related to the content already recorded. In thiscase, the information on programmed recording may be displayed in aschedule screen at the destination of transition reached when theschedule icon 102 d is selected in the portal screen.

Referring back to FIG. 6, the viewing status communicating unit 99periodically transmits viewing status data to the information managementserver 16. The viewing status data associates the program ID of theprogram currently displayed by the program image displaying unit 84,i.e., the program ID of the program currently viewed by the viewer, withthe attribute information of the viewer. Further, the viewing statuscommunicating unit 99 refers to the recording information in therecording information storage unit 52 and periodically transmits viewingstatus data to the information management server 16. The viewing statusdata associates the program ID of the program programmed to be recordedwith the attribute information of the viewer. The frequency ofcommunicating the viewing status may be determined in light of the realtime performance required to collect viewing status and of the networkand system load, comparing the requirements. For example, theinformation may be communicated once in every one minute, for example.

A description will now be given of the operation in the configurationdescribed above. FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing the operation of theinformation processing apparatus 11. The figure primarily shows theoperation initiated via a user interface. When an instruction forstarting the program viewer AP is acknowledged in the informationprocessing apparatus 11, the portal screen displaying unit 80 displays aportal screen (S10). When a user operation is not detected (N in S12)and a predetermined period of time or more has elapsed in that state (Yin S14), the standby screen displaying unit 82 displays a standby screen(S16), whereupon a determination in S12 is performed for a second time.When the elapsed time is less than the predetermined period of time (Nin S14), control is returned to S12 without displaying a standby screen.

In the portal screen, the latest information pop 104 is displayed inassociation with each of the icons for selecting respective functionalscreens. The status tag 106 indicating the viewing status or operatingstatus is also displayed. In this way, the viewer can view the usefullatest information in the portal screen without making a transition toeach functional screen. Consequently, viewer convenience is improved. Bydisplaying a thumbnail image of recorded content in the portal screen orstandby screen, the viewer can not only view the recorded content butalso enjoy viewing the history of recording. For example, since thestandby screen shows a thumbnail image in a varying mode, the standbyscreen may be displayed as some sort of an interior decoration. Byallowing a thumbnail image to be displayed in a mode that variesdepending on the date and time of recording, the viewer can easilyidentify and determine a recorded content to view.

When a viewer operation is detected (Y in S12), the standby screendisplaying unit 82 terminates the display of the standby screen if it isbeing displayed. When the operation of selecting the TV icon 102 a isdetected (Y in S18), a live image display process described later isperformed (S20). When the detected operation is not the selection of theTV icon 102 a (N in S18), S20 is skipped. When the operation ofselecting the program guide icon 102 b is detected (Y in S22), a programguide display process described later is performed (S24). If thedetected operation is not the selection of the program guide icon 102 b(N in S22), S24 is skipped. When the operation of selecting the videoicon 102 e is selected (Y in S26), a video screen display processdescribed later is performed (S28). When the detected operation is notthe selection of the video icon 102 e (N in S26), S28 is skipped. Whenanother on-screen selection icon 102 is selected in the portal screen,the process of displaying a screen corresponding to the selected icon isperformed (not shown in the figure).

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing S20 of FIG. 20 in further detail. Theprogram image acquisition unit 58 acquires the image data for theprogram selected by the viewer from the tuner 13, and the program imagedisplaying unit 84 displays the live image of the program in the imagedisplay screen 110 (S30). When a request for displaying a program guideis acknowledged (Y in S32), the indicator acquisition unit 68 acquiresthe live indicator and the programmed recording indicator from theinformation management server 16 (S34), the popularity determinationunit 70 determines the ranking of popularity of the programs accordingto the indicators (S36). The first program guide displaying unit 92displays the first program guide associating the program information ofthe programs being broadcast with the rank of popularity, superimposingthe guide on the image display screen 110 (S38). When a request fordisplaying a program guide is not acknowledged (N in S32), S34 throughS38 are skipped.

When a ranking determination interval (e.g., one minute) correspondingto the interval of collecting the viewing status in the informationmanagement server 16 elapses, the indicator acquisition unit 68 acquiresthe latest indicators from the information management server 16 (notshown in FIG. 21). The popularity determination unit 70 updates thepopularity rank of each program in accordance with the latestindicators. The first program guide displaying unit 92 displays theupdated popularity ranking of the programs in the first program guide.

By displaying the first program guide showing ranking indicators alongwith the live image of the program, the viewer can know programs thatare currently popular at a glance while viewing the desired program. Inthe base technology, the viewing status is identified based on a viewingaction that can be objectively identified (e.g., viewing of a program ora programming of a recording). In this way, viewing status can beidentified that is more precise than base upon the viewer's subjectiveindicator of the program (e.g., “like”, “dislike”, “intend to view”, orthe like), i.e., more properly representing the situation.

Since the channel can be switched by controlling the first programguide, the viewer can select a program of interest as needed based onthe changing ranking order. Since the first program guide shows theprogress status of the programs or the status of transition inpopularity, the viewer can select a program to view by referring to thestatus. Since the program summary of the program selected by the cursoris displayed in the program summary field 124, allowing the scrolling ofthe display, the area occupied by the first program guide is controlledwhile allowing the viewer to view a desired program summary. This helpsmaintain the viewability of program image.

When a request for a search is acknowledged while the program image isbeing displayed (Y in S40), or when the information related to theprogram being displayed is updated (Y in S42) absent an explicit searchrequest (N in S40), the search key acquisition unit 74 acquires a searchkey from the program information (S44). The search execution unit 76transmits a search request to the search server 17 and receives a resultof the search (S46). The search result displaying unit 86 displays thebrowser screen 114 showing the web page retrieved by the search side byside with the image display screen 110 (S48). Absent an explicit searchrequest and updating of the program related information (N in S42),S44-S48 are skipped so that the flow of the figures is terminated.

According to this embodiment, various information related to the programviewed is acquired from web sites on the Internet and presented to theviewer along with the program image. This allows the user to view avariety of information, i.e., information not limited to typical programguide information, associated with the program viewed. Further, since asearch key is automatically retrieved from the program information, itis not necessary for the viewer to designate a search key. When theinformation related to a program is updated, the information displayedin the browser screen 114 is updated as changes occur. In this way, theviewer can view a search result updated based on the latest informationon the program without performing a specific operation and can continueto view the program image.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing S24 of FIG. 20 in further detail. Thesecond program guide displaying unit 94 displays the second programguide based on the program information in the program informationstorage unit 50 (S50). The cursor displaying unit 90 moves the displayposition of the cursor across a plurality of program frames in thesecond program guide in accordance with the viewer operation. When thecursor is moved (Y in S52), the second program guide displaying unit 94displays the program frame designated by the cursor, i.e., the programframe of the temporarily selected program, on a larger scale than theprogram frames for the other channels (S54).

A part of the program frame goes out of the view in association with themovement of the cursor (Y in S56). When the program frame is for theprogram being broadcast (Y in S58), the second program guide displayingunit 94 displays the program information in the remaining area, startingat the head of the information (S60). When the program frame is for theprogram already broadcast (N in S58), S60 is skipped. When none of theparts of the program frame goes out of the view (N in S56), S58 and S60are skipped. When the cursor is not moved (N in S52), S54-S60 areskipped.

Subsequently, when the program that the viewer desires to control forviewing is selected in the second program guide, i.e., when the programis formally selected (Y in S62), the second program guide displayingunit 94 displays the program information on the selected program in theprogram detail window 136 in a pop-up display mode (S64). In this case,the control icon 138 is displayed to accompany the program detail window136. The second program guide is displayed in the background in ablurred manner. When the recording of the formally selected program isprogrammed (Y in S66), the second program guide displaying unit 94displays the programmed recording line 142 indicating the time zone ofthe programmed recording in the second program guide (S68).

When the recording is not programmed (N in S66), S68 is skipped. Whenthe program is not formally selected (N in S62), S64-S68 are skipped.When an instruction for changing the display mode of the second programguide (e.g., change in character size, change in size of program frame,etc.) is acknowledged (Y in S70), the second program guide displayingunit 94 immediately changes the display mode of the second program guide(S72). When an instruction for changing the display mode is notacknowledged (N in S70), S72 is skipped.

According to this embodiment, the area of the program frame in thesecond program guide selected by the cursor is dynamically enlarged sothat more program information is displayed than before the selection.This reduces necessity for the viewer to perform an extra operation of,for example, displaying another screen to view program information. Inother words, the viewer operation for viewing program information issimplified so that the convenience of the electronic program guide isimproved. By superimposing the program detail window 136 on the secondprogram guide, the viewer is allowed to perform an operation for viewingthe program, while maintaining an impression of the time or programposition viewed in the second program guide. By reducing the imagequality of the second program guide in the background of the programdetail window 136, the viewability of the program detail window 136 isrelatively improved.

The display mode of the second program guide is changed as needed inaccordance with user control while maintaining the display of the secondprogram guide, i.e., without making a transition to another settingscreen. This provides the viewer with immediate feedback resulting fromthe change in the display mode. For example, the viewer can immediatelyview the change in viewability. Further, by setting the programmedrecording line 142 in the second program guide in association with theprogrammed recording, the viewer can easily view the status ofprogrammed recording even if the viewer cannot directly view the programframe of the program programmed to be recorded due to a large number ofchannels. This helps prevent duplicate programmed recordings orunexpected overwriting, for example.

By displaying the program frame that partly goes out of the view,starting at the head of the information that should be displayed,important information (program title, etc.) is displayed in theremaining area of the program frame preferentially. When the programinformation is displayed, starting in the middle of the information, theviewer will not be able to determine which program the information isabout. By displaying the information from the start, the viewer can knowthe program content easily. By sliding only the program information ofthe program being broadcast into view in the program frame, only theprogram content of the program that the viewer can view is presented inan easily distinguishable manner.

FIG. 23 shows S28 of FIG. 20 in further detail. The video control screendisplaying unit 96 displays a video screen, and the recording listdisplaying unit 98 displays a list of recordings 150 in the video screen(S80). In the list of recordings, the recorded content suspended in themiddle of playback is displayed in a mode to indicate as such. Morespecifically, the playback progress rate indicating the progress ofplayback is displayed in association with each of the recorded content.This helps the viewer efficiently determine the recorded content to playback.

When an instruction to start playback is acknowledged (Y in S82), theplayback processing unit 66 starts playing back the recorded content(S84) and sends the data for recorded image to the program imagedisplaying unit 84. The program image displaying unit 84 displays therecorded image on the display 14 (S86). When an instruction to end theplayback is not acknowledged (N in S86), control is returned to S86.When an instruction to end the playback is acknowledged (Y in S88), theplayback processing unit 66 ends the process of playing back therecorded content and stores the playback progress rate occurring at thatmoment in the recording information storage unit 52 (S92). When aninstruction to start playback is not acknowledged (N in S82), S84-S92are skipped.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing the operation of the informationprocessing apparatus 11. The figure primarily shows the operationperformed as a background process. When a predetermined interval fornotification (e.g., one minute) has elapsed (Y in S100), the viewingstatus communicating unit 99 notifies the information management server16 of the program ID of the program currently being broadcast and theprogram ID of the program already programmed to be recorded (S102). Whenan interval for notification has not elapsed (N in S100), S102 isskipped. The recording processing unit 64 refers to the recordinginformation in the recording information storage unit 52 and performsthe programmed recording process. In other words, when the recordingprocess is not started (N in S104) and when the recording start timecomes (Y in S106), the recording processing unit 64 starts the recordingprocess (S108). When the recording start time has not come (N in S106),S108 is skipped. When the recording process is already started (Y inS104), S106 and S108 are skipped.

When the recording process is already started (Y in S110) and when apredetermined ranking determination interval (e.g., one minute) haselapsed (Y in S112), the indicator acquisition unit 68 acquires the liveindicator and the programmed recording indicator from the informationmanagement server 16 (S114). The popularity determination unit 70determines the popularity ranking in accordance with the indicators(S116). When the program being recorded is ranked at or higher than apredetermined rank (Y in S118), the recording processing unit 64 insertsa chapter in the recorded data (S120). When the program being recordedis not ranked at or higher than a predetermined rank (N in S118), S120is skipped. When the ranking determination interval has not elapsed (Nin S112), S114-S120 are skipped. By inserting a chapter in the recordedcontent, the viewer can easily search for and identify the start of ascene that is popular to viewers, when playing back the recordedcontent.

When the recording end time comes (Y in S122), the recording processingunit 64 ends the recording process (S124). The thumbnail setting unit 72sets a thumbnail image from the recorded video and image occurring whenthe program is ranked at or higher than a predetermined rank and storesthe thumbnail image in the thumbnail storage unit 54 (S126). When therecording end time does not come (N in S122), S124 and S125 are skipped.When the recording process is not started yet (N in S110), S112-S126 areskipped. According to this embodiment, the scene that is popular toviewers is turned into a thumbnail image so that the recorded content ismore easily identified by a thumbnail image.

Described above is an explanation based on a form of the basetechnology. The embodiment is intended to be illustrative only and itwill be obvious to those skilled in the art that various modificationsto constituting elements and processes could be developed and that suchmodifications are also within the scope of the base technology. Adescription will now be given of variations to the base technology.

The first variation will be described. The search key acquisition unit74 of a form of the base technology uses program informationacknowledged as EPG information as a search key. In one variation, theinformation processing apparatus 11 may additionally be provided with acaption information acquisition unit that acquires caption informationin character multiplex broadcast (so-called caption multiplex broadcast)from the tuner 13. The search key acquisition unit 74 may use a captioncharacter string included in the caption information as a search key.For example, the unit 74 may subject the caption character string tomorphological analysis and use a noun phrase included in the captioncharacter string as a search key. Alternatively, when the captioninformation acquisition unit acquires new caption information, thesearch key acquisition unit 74 may allow the search execution unit 76 toperform a new search using the caption character string included in thenew caption information as a new search key.

The second variation will be described. The search key acquisition unit74 may acquire a search key in accordance with the live indicator orprogrammed recording indicator acquired by the indicator acquisitionunit 68 or the popularity ranking of the programs determined by thepopularity determination unit 70. According to this variation, a searchresult useful for the viewer can easily be provided by using the programrelated information available when the popularity of the program isincreased as a search key.

For example, a search key may be acquired from the program informationor caption character string available when the live indicator,programmed recording indicator, or a sum thereof of a program reaches apredetermined value or higher while the image of the program is beingdisplayed. Alternatively, a search key may be acquired from the programinformation or caption character string available when a program reachesa certain popularity rank or higher while the image of the program isbeing displayed. The caption character string, indicator, and history ofpopularity rank may be stored in the data storage unit 48 in associationwith the program ID, and the search key acquisition unit 74 may acquirea search key based on the history information while the recorded contentis being played back.

The third variation will be described. In a form of the base technology,the first program guide is assumed to be displayed in a display modereflecting the popularity ranking of the programs, and no reference ismade to the second program guide. In one variation, the second programguide may also be displayed in a display mode reflecting the popularityranking of the programs. In this case, the second program guidedisplaying unit 94 may change the display mode (e.g., color, characterfont, etc.) of the program frames of the second program guide inaccordance with the popularity ranking determined by the popularitydetermination unit 70. Alternatively, the popularity indicator or thedata for an indicator itself may be displayed in association with theprogram frame. This variation provides the viewer with informationuseful for the viewer that selects a program for view in the secondprogram guide. For example, a program programmed by a lot of viewers tobe recorded can be suggested to the viewer, thereby helping the viewerto determine a program that should be programmed for recording.

The fourth variation will be described. The first program guidedisplaying unit 92 may dynamically change the size of a program framefor each channel, typically the length in the direction of channel axis,in accordance with the attribute or propensity of the viewer or theinformation related to the program. For example, the unit 92 may referto the age group or sex of the viewer and display program frames forchannels that are more likely to be viewed by viewers having a selectedattribute on a larger scale. Alternatively, the higher the currentpopularity rank, the larger the program frame of the program may bedisplayed. The program frame for a channel in which the broadcasting ofa program ends and that of the next program has not been started may bedisplayed on a smaller scale than the program frames for the otherchannels in which programs continue to be broadcast. According to thisvariation, the viewability of program frames for channels that arelikely to be selected by viewers is improved and the volume ofdisplayable program information can be increased.

The fifth variation will be described. The program image acquisitionunit 58 may acquire from the tuner 13 the program image currently rankedat a predetermined rank (typically, No. 1) or higher as determined bythe popularity determination unit 70. When the popularity rankingchanges, the channel from which to acquire image information may bedynamically switched in accordance with the change. The program imagedisplaying unit 84 displays the program image acquired by the programimage acquisition unit 58 in accordance with the change in popularityranking on the display 14. According to this variation, a program thatis popular to viewers is automatically selected so that the display 14always displays the image of a popular program. This implements a sortof zapping without viewer intervention.

The sixth variation will be described. When playing back the recordedcontent, the playback processing unit 66 may communicate the informationindicating as such to the information management server 16 along withthe program ID. The information management server 16 may periodicallysupply the information processing apparatus 11 with a playback ratioindicating the ratio of viewers that have played back the recordedcontent with respect to the viewers having programmed the program withthe program ID to be recorded, associating the ratio with the programID. The playback ratio is stored in the recording information in therecording information storage unit 52. The recording list displayingunit 98 may further display the playback ratio in association with eachrecorded content in the list of recordings. The viewer may select one ofthe plurality of recorded contents for view by referring to the playbackratio of the recorded contents.

The seventh variation will be described. The recording processing unit64 may record the live image ranked at or higher than a predeterminedrank (typically, No. 1) even without a viewer operation for recording.In this case, the recording processing unit 64 dynamically changes thelive image recorded in accordance with a change in popularity rankingAccording to this variation, the live image of a popular program isalways recorded in the background. The viewer can later view a programimage popular to other viewers in an efficient manner.

This variation is particularly suitable in the program viewing system 10provided with a plurality of tuners 13. According to a form of the basetechnology, the viewer can refer to the first program guide and knowthat the popularity of a program different from the program that theviewer is viewing is increased. However, the viewer may find itdifficult to view the very program image that caused the increase inpopularity even if the viewer switches to the other program. Accordingto this variation, program images that become popular are alwaysrecorded so that the viewer does not miss out on viewing program imagesthat become popular. As a result, viewer convenience is improved.

The eighth variation will be described. When a certain viewer operationregarding the cursor movement in the second program guide isacknowledged, the cursor displaying unit 90 may allow program frames ofprograms programmed for recording to be successively selected by thecursor. According to this variation, the viewer can efficiently selectthe program programmed to be recorded in the second program guide.

The ninth variation will be described. In a form of the base technology,the popularity ranking of the programs is determined in the informationprocessing apparatus 11. In a variation, the information managementserver 16 may determine the popularity ranking of the programs acrossthe entire attributes of viewers and the popularity ranking for eachviewer attribute. In this case, the indicator acquisition unit 68 of theinformation processing apparatus 11 may acquire the popularity rankingas the indicator from the information management server 16. Thepopularity determination unit 70 may directly output the popularityranking thus acquired to the data processing unit 56.

The tenth variation will be described. In a form of the base technology,the history of popularity ranking is stored in the informationprocessing apparatus 11. In a variation, the history of indicatorsoriginating the popularity ranking may be stored in the informationmanagement server 16. For example, the information management server 16may further be provided with a tally history storage unit, which maystore the tally result of viewing status as a tally history, associatingthe result with date and time information. In acquiring the popularityranking of programs broadcast in the past in the information processingapparatus 11 (e.g., in playing back a recorded content), the apparatusmay acquire the tally history from the information management server 16to determine the popularity ranking in the past.

The eleventh variation will be described. In a form of the basetechnology, the program information acquisition unit 60 acquires EPGinformation from the tuner 13. In a variation, the program informationacquisition unit 60 may acquire EPG information from an informationprovider server on the Internet 15 via the Internet 15. Further, theprogram information acquisition unit 60 may acquire EPG information fromthe tuner 13 and acquire program related information that should beappended to the EPG information and displayed in the electronic programguide via the Internet 15.

The twelfth variation will be described. The functions of theinformation processing apparatus 11 described in the base technology maybe implemented in the tuner 13. In this case, the tuner 13 may includethe CPU 300, GPU 302, main memory 308, hard disk drive 334, network card330, and interface 332 shown in FIG. 5. The functions shown in FIG. 6may be implemented by the tuner.

As a thirteenth variation, an explanation is given of a display mode ofa first program guide 116. FIG. 25 shows an exemplary first programguide as displayed in the present exemplary embodiment. The exemplaryfirst program guide as displayed in the figure corresponds to the oneshown in FIG. 13, and like numerals represent like constituting elementsthat are identical to or correspond to those shown in FIG. 13. Adisplayed station indicator 160 shows broadcasting stations beingdisplayed on the image display screen 110. Program frames 118 a, 118 b,and 118 c (also generically referred to as a “program frame 118”) of thefirst program guide 116 each include a view count field 162, a recordingcount field 164, a view count change field 166, a recording count changefield 168, and a progress indicator 126.

The progress indicator 126 shows the degree of progress of each stationprogram at the current moment. The view count field 162 shows the numberof users viewing each station program. The recording count field 164shows the number of users recording each station program. As describedlater, the number of viewing users in the view count field 162 and thenumber of recording users in the recording count field 164 are updatedperiodically (for every passing minute in the present exemplaryembodiment and hereinafter). The view count change field 166 shows adifference in the number of the viewing users before and after theupdate, i.e., the value of an increase/decrease in the number of theviewing users associated with the update. The recording count changefield 168 shows the value an increase/decrease in the number of therecording users associated with the update. The respective values of theview count change field 166 and the recording count change field 168 arealso updated in accordance with the update of the view count field 162and the recording count field 164.

An explanation is now given of a configuration for achieving the firstprogram guide 116 described above. In addition to the configurationshown in the form of the base technology, the information managementserver 16 is further provided with an executed recording tally unit forcounting the number of users executing recordings. The executedrecording tally unit acquires the program ID of the program that theviewer is currently recording from each of the plurality of informationprocessing apparatuses 11 on a periodical basis and counts the number ofrecordings being executed. Therefore, the viewing status communicatingunit 99 of the information processing apparatus 11 transmits the programID of the program being recorded by the recording processing unit 64 tothe information management server 16 on a periodical basis.

The indicator acquisition unit 68 of the information processingapparatus 11 acquires, as a live indicator, the number of the viewingusers, which is the number of users viewing each program currently beingbroadcast, and the number of the recording users, which is the number ofusers recording each program on a periodical basis from the informationmanagement server 16. The popularity determination unit 70 outputs thenumber of the viewing users and the number of the recording usersacquired by the indicator acquisition unit 68 as data indicating thedegree of popularity.

The first program guide displaying unit 92 displays the first programguide 116 and the displayed station indicator 160 over a program imagebeing displayed on the image display screen 110 in accordance with auser operation. The first program guide displaying unit 92 sets thenumber of the viewing users in the view count field 162, calculates thevalue of an increase/decrease in the number of the viewing users beforeand after the setting, and sets the value of the increase/decrease inthe view count change field 166. The first program guide displaying unit92 sets the number of the recording users in the recording count field164, calculates the value of an increase/decrease in the number of therecording users before and after the setting, and sets the value of theincrease/decrease in the recording count change field 168. The firstprogram guide displaying unit 92 repeats a process of updating the viewcount field 162, the recording count field 164, the view count changefield 166, and the recording count change field 168 every time a newlive indicator is acquired by the indicator acquisition unit 68, thatis, every passing minute.

When the increase/decrease in the number of the viewing users is atleast a predetermined threshold (e.g., plus/minus 500 people), the firstprogram guide displaying unit 92 highlights the view count change field166 more than usual as shown in the program frames 118 a and 118 b inFIG. 25. Similarly, when the increase/decrease in the number of therecording users is at least a predetermined threshold (e.g., plus/minus100 people), the first program guide displaying unit 92 highlights therecording count change field 168 more than usual as shown in the programframe 118 b in FIG. 25.

As a reference for highlighting in the program frame 118, anincrease/decrease in the number is used in the present embodiment.However, the first program guide displaying unit 92 may calculate anincrease/decrease rate and may highlight a field under the conditionthat the increase/decrease rate shows a change of at least apredetermined threshold. Alternatively, the first program guidedisplaying unit 92 may highlight a field when either one or both of theincrease/decrease in the number and the increase/decrease rate are atleast the respective predetermined threshold. Alternatively, the firstprogram guide displaying unit 92 may highlight a field when either oneor both of an increase in the number and an increase rate are at leastthe respective predetermined threshold or may highlight a field wheneither one or both of a decrease in the number and a decrease rate areat least the respective predetermined threshold. It is obvious thateither an increase or decrease may be used as a requirement.

The first program guide displaying unit 92 may suggest a user asignificant increase/decrease in the number of the viewing users or thenumber of the recording users with an effect by displaying apredetermined image or a video image, instead of the highlighting, in acorresponding program frame 118. Further, with regard to the number ofthe viewing users and the number of the recording users, theincrease/decrease in the number and/or the increase/decrease rate may becalculated by the information management server 16, and the informationprocessing apparatus 11 may directly use the increase/decrease in thenumbers and/or the increase-decrease rate.

The first program guide displaying unit 92 sets a progress indicator 126for a program shown in each program frame 118. In other words, aprogress indicator 126 is also set to a program not being viewed by auser or a program in a program frame 118 not being selected by a cursor(not shown). This allows the user to more easily overlook the degree ofprogress of a program including a program that is not being viewed orselected. Thus, the user can effectively select a program more easily.The first program guide displaying unit 92 may display the progressindicator 126 while overlaying the indicator 126 on other displays inthe program frame 118 and on the program image. In other words, thefirst program guide displaying unit 92 may overlay-display the progressindicator 126 on another display object.

The display mode for presenting the degree of progress of a program isnot limited to the progress indicator 126, which is in graph form. Thefirst program guide displaying unit 92 may set a different display mode(e.g., a different background color) to the program frame 118 accordingto the degree of progress of a program. For example, a ratio ofdisplaying a first background color and a second background color of theprogram frame 118 may be changed sequentially as a progress indicatoraccording to the degree of progress of a program, or the ratio of one ofthe background colors may be increased progressively as the programprogresses. Obviously, the first program guide displaying unit 92 mayalso overlay-display the progress indicator, obtained in this case, onanother display object. The first program guide displaying unit 92 maydisplay the progress indicator of a program frame 118 that correspondsto a program being selected by the user, that is, a program beingdisplayed on the image display screen 110 in a mode that is different(e.g., in a different color) from that of the progress indicator thatcorresponds to another program not being selected.

When there is a change in the viewing status in the first program guidedisplaying unit 92, the unit 92 instantly reflects the change in thefirst program guide 116 by updating the view count field 162 of theprogram frame 118 without waiting to acquire information from theinformation management server 16. More specifically, when a program thatis being viewed is switched to another program, for example, when theoperation detection unit 44 detects an operation of switching a program,the first program guide displaying unit 92 instantly decrements the viewcount field 162 of the program frame 118 for the program that had beenselected until the switching of the program. The first program guidedisplaying unit 92 instantly increments the view count field 162 of theprogram frame 118 that is newly selected.

Similarly, when there is a change in the recording status in the firstprogram guide displaying unit 92, the unit 92 instantly reflects thechange in the first program guide 116 by updating the recording countfield 164 of the program frame 118 without waiting to acquireinformation from the information management server 16. Morespecifically, when the recording of a program is started, for example,when the operation detection unit 44 detects an operation of startingthe recording or when the recording processing unit 64 starts arecording process, the first program guide displaying unit 92 instantlyincrements the recording count field 164 of the program frame 118 of aprogram to be recorded. When the recording of the program is ended, thefirst program guide displaying unit 92 instantly decrements therecording count field 164 of the program frame 118 of the program thathad been recorded.

According to the exemplary embodiment, the number of the viewing usersand the number of the recording users of each program are displayed inthe first program guide 116. Therefore, a user can more easily know thedegree of popularity of each program, specifically. Since anincrease/decrease in the numbers is displayed, the user can more easilyknow the transition in popularity of each program, specifically. Also,the user can more easily know, almost in real time, a program with adrastic increase or decrease in the number of viewing users or thenumber of the recording users, in other words, a program having adrastic change in its popularity. As described above, theuser-friendliness for a program selection as well as the interest inviewing the program can be increased by allowing the trend of otherviewers to be more easily known in addition to simply allowing a programimage to be viewed. For example, notifying a user of the presence of aprogram with increasing popularity arouses a user's desire to view theprogram, preventing the user from missing the program to be viewed.

EMBODIMENT

FIG. 26 shows the configuration of an information processing system 100according to an embodiment of the present invention. In addition to theconfiguration stated in the base technology, a program viewing system 10and a posting site server 18 are connected via the Internet 15 in theinformation processing system 100.

The posting site server 18 puts a posting site on the Internet 15 thatallows for an instant posting of a feedback comment (typically shortsentences of about 100 characters and also referred to as a “tweet”) ofthe moment regarding the content of a program that is provided by aviewer viewing the program through the viewer's terminal. To a postedcomment, a tag (hereinafter, also referred to as a “hashtag”) may beadded by a poster (viewer), which is for grouping with other commentsand, more specifically, used as a search keyword for searching aplurality of posted comments all at once.

Upon the receipt of a comment acquisition request (in other words, asearch request) specifying a specific hashtag, the posting site server18 supplies, all at once, a client originating a search request withdata of at least one comment to which the hashtag is added. Such aposting site includes, for example, “Twitter” (trademark or registeredtrademark).

The information processing apparatus 11 provides a new viewingexperience to a user by acquiring comments posted to the posting siteserver 18 by various viewers and then presenting the comments to theuser viewing a program being currently broadcast. FIG. 27 is a blockdiagram showing the functional configuration of the informationprocessing apparatus 11 of FIG. 26. In addition to the configurationstated previously in the base technology, the information processingapparatus 11 further includes a comment storage unit 400, a commentprocessing unit 402, a comment displaying unit 404, and a regionalinformation displaying unit 406.

In the present embodiment, it is assumed that program informationacquired by the program information acquisition unit 60 and then storedin the program information storage unit 50 includes a service ID and anevent ID, which are predetermined as identification information foruniquely identifying a single program, and information indicating thegenre and category (e.g., news, variety, sports, etc.) to which theprogram belongs. It is also assumed that the data storage unit 48stores, in advance, information indicating a user's viewing region thatcorresponds to at least one specific broadcasting station as theattribute information of the user.

FIG. 28 is a block diagram showing the comment storage unit 400 of FIG.27 in further detail. The comment storage unit 400 includes anacquired-comment storage unit 410 and a fixed-comment storage unit 412.The acquired-comment storage unit 410 is a storage area adapted to storea comment acquired from the posting site server 18 by the informationprocessing apparatus 11 in accordance with a user operation. To acomment acquired by the posting site server 18, the posting time anddate are added.

The fixed-comment storage unit 412 is a storage area adapted to store afixed-comment, which is a prepared comment for supporting the creationof a comment to be posted to the posting site server 18. FIG. 29 showsthe configuration of data stored in the fixed-comment storage unit 412.The fixed-comment storage unit 412 stores the information indicating aplurality of types of program genres and categories, for example, news,variety, sports, etc., and fixed comments expected to be appropriate forrespective genres in association with each other. These fixed commentsare also said to be typical comments that are often posted according toa program genre. A “program name” in a fixed comment of the figure isreplaced with the name of a program (e.g., “7 o'clock news,” etc.) beingviewed by a user at the time of creating a posting comment as describedlater.

FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing the comment processing unit 402 ofFIG. 27 in further detail. The comment processing unit 402 includes acomment acquisition unit 420, a comment posting unit 422, and a tagtally unit 424.

The comment acquisition unit 420 transmits a comment acquisition requestto the posting site server 18 by using, as a search key, a hashtagidentified in accordance with a user operation and then acquires thedata of at least one comment to which the hashtag is added from theposting site server 18. The comment acquisition unit 420 then stores theacquired comment data in the acquired-comment storage unit 410.

By transmitting the data of a comment created by a user on a commentcreating screen (described later) to the posting site server 18, thecomment posting unit 422 registers the comment with the posting siteserver 18. In posting the comment created by the user, the commentposting unit 422 adds to the comment a predetermined hashtag thatindicates software (hereinafter, also referred to as “program viewingsoftware”), which is installed in the information processing apparatus11 so as to provide a program viewing function, and a predeterminedhashtag that indicates a broadcasting station being viewed by the user.

The comment acquisition unit 420 and the comment posting unit 422 mayperform the above processes by calling an application programminginterface (API) for acquiring a comment and an API for posting a commentfrom among Web application programming interfaces (WebAPI) put by theposting site server 18.

Referring to a plurality of comments stored in the acquired-commentstorage unit 410, the tag tally unit 424 counts the number of hashtagsadded to each comment according to the type of the hashtags. In otherwords, the number of appearances of each hashtag in the plurality ofcomments is counted. In other words, the number of comments to whicheach of a plurality of types of hashtags (e.g., “#soccer” and “#kokkai”)is added is calculated for each hashtag type. It can be said that thecomments stored in the acquired-comment storage unit 410 are acquiredfrom the posting site server 18 based on a user operation (a screenselection operation, etc.) and are displayed based on the useroperation.

The tag tally unit 424 counts the number of hashtags of a comment postedwithin the past hour prior to the time at which the number is counted(in other words, the posting time and date of a comment are within thepast hour of the time at which the number is counted). The tag tallyunit 424 may start a process of counting hashtags by using, as atrigger, the detection of an operation of displaying an informationscreen or the detection that a certain period of time (e.g., tenminutes) has passed.

FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing the comment displaying unit 404 ofFIG. 27 in further detail. The comment displaying unit 404 includes afirst comment displaying unit 430, a second comment displaying unit 432,a cursor displaying unit 434, a comment element selecting unit 436, acreation screen displaying unit 438, a comment creation supporting unit440, an input comment setting unit 442, and a frequently-appearing tagdisplaying unit 444.

The first comment displaying unit 430 displays an all-TL screen(described later) that displays all tweet lists (hereinafter, written as“TL”) on the display 14. A tweet list of the present embodiment means auser interface that displays comments posted to the posting site server18 and is a concept including a so-called timeline in which the postedcomments are arranged in chronological order. The second commentdisplaying unit 432 displays a channel TL screen (described later) thatdisplays a comment related to a specific broadcasting station and ahashtag TL screen (described later) that displays a comment related to aspecific hashtag.

The cursor displaying unit 434 displays a cursor for a user to select aspecific area (hereinafter, also referred to as an “area”) and aspecific comment on the respective TL screens displayed by the firstcomment displaying unit 430 and the second comment displaying unit 432.When depression of an up or down switch of a directional button of thecontroller 12 is detected by the operation detection unit 44, the cursordisplaying unit 434 may move the cursor over a plurality of areas andcomments.

The comment element selecting unit 436 selects a specific elementcharacter string in an area or comment focused by the cursor inaccordance with the user operation to the controller 12. The elementcharacter string is typically a character string that is different fromthe main text of a comment and is, for example, a URL of a webpage or acharacter string of a hashtag. When depression of a left or right switchof the directional button of the controller 12 is detected by theoperation detection unit 44, the comment element selecting unit 436 maysuccessively select an individual hashtag added to the comment focusedby the cursor and highlight the selected hashtag in a predeterminedmode.

The creation screen displaying unit 438 displays on the display 14 atweet menu screen (described later) for selecting the type of a commentposting operation and a comment creating screen (described later) forcreating a comment for posting. The creation screen displaying unit 438displays a software keyboard (in other words, a “screen keyboard”) forentering characters for a comment on the comment creating screen.

The comment creation supporting unit 440 identifies the genre of aprogram a user is viewing by referring to the program information storedin the program information storage unit 50. The comment creationsupporting unit 440 then selects a fixed comment corresponding to thegenre of the program the user is viewing in accordance with acorrespondence relationship between program genres and fixed commentsstored in the fixed-comment storage unit 412.

The input comment setting unit 442 sets a character, which is selectedby the user through the software keyboard displayed on the commentcreating screen, in a comment creating area of the comment creatingscreen. When a fixed comment is selected by the user, the input commentsetting unit 442 automatically sets the selected fixed comment in thecomment creating area.

When the display of an information screen (described later) isinstructed by the user, the frequently-appearing tag displaying unit 444identifies the top eight hashtags (hereinafter, also referred to as“frequently-appearing tags”) with respect to the number of appearancesof respective hashtags counted by the tag tally unit 424. Thefrequently-appearing tag displaying unit 444 displays each of thefrequently-appearing tags in a frequently-appearing tag display area ofthe information screen along with the number of appearances in aplurality of comments.

Referring back to FIG. 27, when the display of the information screen(described later) is instructed by the user, the regional informationdisplaying unit 406 acquires the number of viewing users, which is thenumber of users viewing a program of each broadcasting station in eachregion. Therefore, the viewer tally unit 26 of the informationmanagement server 16 acquires the information of the program the user isviewing along with the information indicating the broadcasting stationfrom the information processing apparatus 11 and counts the number ofthe viewing users for each broadcasting station in each region. Theindicator acquisition unit 68 of the information processing apparatus 11acquires the number of the viewing users of each broadcasting station ineach region and provides the number of the viewing users to the regionalinformation displaying unit 406. The regional information displayingunit 406 displays, in a broadcasting-station-specific viewing statusdisplaying area in the information screen, the number of the viewingusers of each broadcasting station in each region.

An explanation is given of the operation of the above configuration inthe following.

FIG. 32 shows an exemplary image display screen 110 as displayed andcorresponds to FIG. 11. As described in the base technology, the programimage acquisition unit 58 acquires, from the tuner 13, the image of asingle program selected by a user from among a plurality of programsbeing broadcast by a plurality of broadcasting stations, and the programimage displaying unit 84 displays the program image on the image displayscreen 110 in accordance with the image information. Control icons 112of the present embodiment include a live function icon 112 b. When thelive function icon 112 b is selected by the user on the image displayscreen 110, a live function explained in the following flowchart isstarted.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing the operation of the informationprocessing apparatus 11 of FIG. 26. When the live function icon 112 b isselected on the image display screen 110 (Y in S130), the commentacquisition unit 420 transmits a comment acquisition request to theposting site server 18 by using, as a search key, the hashtag of each ofa plurality of broadcasting stations that corresponds to a user'sviewing region that is stored in the data storage unit 48. The commentacquisition unit 420 then acquires a comment to which the hashtag ofeach broadcasting station is added from the posting site server 18 andstores the comment in the acquired-comment storage unit 410. In otherwords, the comment acquisition unit 420 acquires comments posted byvarious viewers for a program being broadcast by each broadcastingstation that corresponds to the user's viewing region (S132).

The first comment displaying unit 430 acquires a comment to which thehashtag of each broadcasting station is added that is stored in theacquired-comment storage unit 410. As the number of posted comments towhich a hashtag of a certain broadcasting station is added increases,the first comment displaying unit 430 determines the scroll speed indisplaying the posted comment of the broadcasting station to be faster.In other words, the first comment displaying unit 430 determines scrollspeed such that the scroll speed for the posted comments for abroadcasting station with relatively more posted comments is faster thanthe scroll speed for the posted comments for a broadcasting station withrelatively less posted comments (S134). For example, the first commentdisplaying unit 430 may store a correspondence relationship between therange of the number of posted comments (0-20 posted comments, 20-40posted comments, . . . , 80-100 posted comments) and scroll speed inadvance and may determine the scroll speed for the posted comments foreach broadcasting station in reference to the correspondencerelationship. The first comment displaying unit 430 displays an all-TLscreen for the scroll display of the posted comments for eachbroadcasting station in parallel with one another (S136).

Upon the detection that a predetermined waiting period (e.g., oneminute) has passed, the comment acquisition unit 420 acquires the postedcomments for each broadcasting station from the posting site server 18again (not shown in FIG. 33). In the present embodiment, it is assumedthat a maximum of 100 posted comments are acquired for each broadcastingstation in reverse chronological order of the posting time and date. Thefirst comment displaying unit 430 sequentially changes the scroll speedfor the posted comments according to the transition of the number ofcomments acquired by the comment acquisition unit 420. In other words,the scroll speed is decreased as the number of comments decreases, andthe scroll speed is increased as the number of comments increases. Usinga user account in a posting site that is recorded in advance in theinformation processing apparatus 11, the comment acquisition unit 420acquires a comment that is associated with the user account in theposting site server 18.

FIG. 34 shows an exemplary all-TL screen as displayed. When the livefunction icon 112 b is selected on the image display screen 110, thefirst comment displaying unit 430 sets a part of the display screen ofthe display 14 to be a live information display area 450. The firstcomment displaying unit 430 then displays an all-TL screen 454 in thelive information display area 450 side by side with the image displayscreen 110 that displays a program image. On the all-TL screen 454, alive function tag 452 that shows that a live function is being performedand an all-TL tab 456 that shows that the screen is the all-TL screen454 are displayed.

The first comment displaying unit 430 displays the comments posted for aprogram being broadcast by each broadcasting station in parallel withone another in an area for the broadcasting station provided in abroadcasting-station-specific comment area 458. In other words, thefirst comment displaying unit 430 displays the comments posted for aprogram being broadcast by a certain broadcasting station independentlyfrom the comment posted for a program being broadcast by anotherbroadcasting station.

This allows real-time comments from other viewers provided for a programthe user is viewing to be sequentially presented to the user. Also,real-time comments from viewers provided for programs the user is notviewing to be also presented to the user at the same time. Viewer'scomments (tweets) are true opinions of viewers that cannot be learnedfrom information shown in program guides. Therefore, a user can checkboth comments for a program the user is viewing and comments for otherprograms at the same time so as to select a program to view. Aninnovative viewing experience can be provided to a user that makes theuser aware of a loose connection with other viewers by sequentiallypresenting the user the thoughts of the moment of people viewing variousprograms at around the same time.

The first comment displaying unit 430 displays the comments posted for aprogram of each broadcasting station in an area provided for thebroadcasting station in the broadcasting-station-specific comment area458 while sequentially scrolling the posted comments to the left inreverse chronological order of the posting time and date at a speed thatcorresponds to the number of postings. This allows the user tointuitively know programs with a large number of comments, which aretypically programs for which many viewers are excited, and also supportsthe user to select a program for which many viewers are excited.

The first comment displaying unit 430 excludes a hashtag and a URL thatare added to each comment from being displayed, in other words, hidesthe hashtag and the URL, when displaying a posted comment. For example,after acquiring a comment from the acquired-comment storage unit 410,the first comment displaying unit 430 may delete hashtag and URLcharacter strings from the comment so as to display the comment. Morespecifically, upon the detection of a predetermined character string(e.g., “#”) that indicates the start of a hashtag in a comment characterstring, the first comment displaying unit 430 may delete a part of thecomment character string that starts with the predetermined characterstring and ends with a predetermined character string (e.g., a blankcharacter or a space) that indicates the end of the hashtag. Similarly,upon the detection of a predetermined character string (e.g., “http://”)that indicates the start of a URL, the first comment displaying unit 430may delete a part of the comment character string that starts with thepredetermined character string and ends with a predetermined characterstring (e.g., a blank character or a space) that indicates the end ofthe URL.

The broadcasting-station-specific comment area 458 includes a pluralityof broadcasting station areas. Although a comment display area of eachbroadcasting station is relatively small, only the main text of eachcomment can be displayed according to the embodiment. This allows acomment to be efficiently displayed while keeping the essential part ofthe comment.

The first comment displaying unit 430 acquires the number of viewers ofa program being broadcast by each broadcasting station from theindicator acquisition unit 68 and displays the acquired number of theviewers in a comment display area of the broadcasting station. The firstcomment displaying unit 430 may highlight the area of a broadcastingstation, which corresponds to a program (being viewed by the user) beingdisplayed on the image display screen 110, in a predetermined mode suchas displaying the area in a different background color from that ofother areas. This supports the user to easily distinguish the programcurrently being viewed from other programs.

The first comment displaying unit 430 scroll displays a commentassociated with a user account in a user comment area 460. Aninformation area 462 is an area selected to transition the screen to aninformation screen (described later). A current software tag area 464 isan area selected to transition the screen to a comment to which ahashtag, which indicates a program viewing software, is added, that is,a comment display screen regarding the program viewing software.

The cursor displaying unit 434 displays a cursor for selecting any oneof the areas of respective broadcasting stations in thebroadcasting-station-specific comment area 458, the user comment area460, the broadcasting-station-specific comment area 458, and the usercomment area 460 on the all-TL screen 454. The user can display anarbitrary screen by selecting a specific area by operating the cursorvia the controller 12.

Referring back to FIG. 33, when any of the broadcasting station areas inthe broadcasting-station-specific comment area 458 of the all-TL screen454 is selected (Y in S138), the comment acquisition unit 420 transmitsa comment acquisition request to the posting site server 18 by using, asa search key, a hashtag that is preset to the broadcasting station(hereinafter, also referred to as a “selected broadcasting station”)selected by the user. The comment acquisition unit 420 then acquires acomment to which the hashtag of the selected broadcasting station isadded from the posting site server 18 (S140) and stores the comment inthe acquired-comment storage unit 410 (S142).

The second comment displaying unit 432 acquires a comment to which thehashtag of the selected broadcasting station is added that is stored inthe acquired-comment storage unit 410. The second comment displayingunit 432 then displays a channel TL screen that displays a list ofcomments in the order of the posting time and date (S144). The channelTL screen is a so-called timeline related to the selected broadcastingstation. When a certain period of time (e.g., one minute) has passed (Yin S146), the step goes back to S140, and a comment is acquired again.The second comment displaying unit 432 updates a tweet list (timeline)on the channel TL screen. In other words, when a new comment is acquiredby the comment acquisition unit 420, the second comment displaying unit432 displays the new comment on the channel TL screen while hiding theold comment.

FIG. 35 shows an exemplary channel TL screen as displayed. On a channelTL screen 470, the live function tag 452 and a channel TL tab 472 thatshows that the screen is the channel TL screen 470 are displayed. On thechannel TL screen 470 of the same figure, a list of comments for aprogram of the selected broadcasting station (the hashtag thereof is“TVAA”) is displayed in descending order of the posting time and date.Different from the all-TL screen 454, a hashtag 474 and a URL characterstring are directly displayed.

When a user operation to the controller 12 is detected during thedisplay of the channel TL screen 470, the cursor displaying unit 434displays a cursor 476. The cursor 476 is moved in a vertical directionfor each comment in accordance with an up/down operation to thedirectional button of the controller 12. The comment element selectingunit 436 successively leaves the hashtag 474 and the URL characterstring selected that are described in a comment focused by the cursor476 in accordance with a left/right operation to the directional buttonof the controller 12. When a predetermined operation (e.g., depressionof a circular button) by the user is detected while the hashtag is beingselected, the second comment displaying unit 432 displays a hashtag TLscreen that includes a tweet list related to the hashtag.

FIG. 36 shows an exemplary channel hashtag screen as displayed. Thehashtag TL screen 480 is a timeline related to a specific hashtag (inthis case, “#soccer”). On the hashtag TL screen 480, the live functiontag 452 and a hashtag TL tab 482 that shows that the screen is thehashtag TL screen 480 are displayed. On the hashtag TL screen 480 of thesame figure, a list of comments to which the hashtag “soccer” is addedis displayed in descending order of the posting time and date. Thecursor displaying unit 434 displays a cursor 484 for selecting thecomments.

Referring back to FIG. 33, when an operation of moving the cursor 476 isdetected (Y in S148) before the certain period of time has passed on thechannel TL screen 470 (N in S146), the second comment displaying unit432 temporarily stops the update of the timeline on the channel TLscreen (S150). In accordance with a cursor operation by the user, thecursor displaying unit 434 moves the cursor 476, and the second commentdisplaying unit 432 scroll displays the timeline (S152). For example,when a previously-posted comment that is hidden on the channel TL screen470 is selected by the cursor 476, the second comment displaying unit432 scrolls the timeline for each comment and redisplays the commentselected by the cursor 476.

When no operation of moving the cursor 476 is detected before a certainperiod of time (e.g., 30 seconds) has passed (Y in S154), the cursordisplaying unit 434 hides the cursor 476, and the second commentdisplaying unit 432 resumes the update of the timeline on the channel TLscreen (S156). When the operation of moving the cursor 476 is detectedwithin the certain period of time (N in S154), the step goes back toS152. When there is no operation of moving the cursor 476 at all (N inS148), S150-S156 are skipped. The same operations as those in S140-S156also apply to the display of a hashtag TL screen except that a specifichashtag is used as a search key.

As described above, the latest posted comment can be presented to theuser by sequentially acquiring the latest posted comment and then bysequentially updating the channel TL screen 470. On the other hand,while a cursor operation (a comment selection operation, etc.) is givenby the user, the update of the channel TL screen 470 is prevented sothat the operation by the user is prevented from being interfered by theupdate of the channel TL screen 470. Generally, compared to a mouse of aPC, etc., there is more constraint on a selection operation, and thedegree of interference to a user operation by the update of the channelTL screen 470 is larger in the controller 12 (e.g., a game controller)that operates the information processing apparatus 11. Therefore,compared to when a mouse is used as an operation means, theuser-friendliness can be greatly improved by preventing the update ofthe channel TL screen 470 during an operation by the user.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart that continues from FIG. 33. When a predeterminedoperation (e.g., depression of a square button) of displaying a menu(hereinafter, also referred to as a “tweet menu”) for an operation ofposting a comment is detected on the channel TL screen or the hashtag TLscreen (Y in S158), the comment creation supporting unit 440 identifiesthe genre of a program being displayed on the image display screen 110and acquires a fixed comment associated with the genre from thefixed-comment storage unit 412 (S160). The creation screen displayingunit 438 displays a tweet menu screen including the fixed commentacquired by the comment creation supporting unit 440.

FIG. 38 shows an exemplary tweet menu screen as displayed. On the tweetmenu screen 490, the live function tag 452 and a tweet menu tab 492 thatshows that the screen is the tweet menu screen 490 are displayed. In thefigure, a new tweet and a retweet, citation, and reply for a commentspecified by the cursor 494 are displayed as selectable tweet menus. Inthe lower part of the figure, a fixed comment 496 associated with aprogram genre “sports” in advance is displayed. The cursor displayingunit 434 displays the cursor 494 on the tweet menu screen 490. The userselects a desired operation area or fixed comment area by operating thecursor 494.

Referring back to FIG. 37, when any one of the selections (a tweet,citation, and fixed comment) is selected on the tweet menu screen, thecreation screen displaying unit 438 displays a comment creating screen(S164). When a fixed comment is selected on the tweet menu screen (Y inS166), the input comment setting unit 442 automatically sets theselected fixed comment in the comment creating area of the commentcreating screen prior to an operation of entering a comment by the user(S168). When a fixed comment is not selected (N in S166), S168 isskipped. Upon the receipt of a request for entering a comment in thecomment creating area from the user, the creation screen displaying unit438 displays, on the comment creating screen, an image showing akeyboard in which various keys are arranged (S170). When a key of thekeyboard is selected by the user, the input comment setting unit 442sets a character that corresponds to the key in the comment creatingarea (S172).

FIG. 39 shows an exemplary comment creating screen as displayed. Acomment creating screen 500 includes a comment creating area 502 and aposting button 506 for posting a comment created in the comment creatingarea 502 to the posting site server 18. In the comment creating area 502of the figure, a fixed comment “this is such an exciting game,” which isselected on the tweet menu screen 490 is automatically set. When a fixedcomment includes a predetermined original character string to bereplaced, the input comment setting unit 442 replaces the originalcharacter string with a replacement character string that corresponds tothe original character string and sets the replaced character string inthe comment creating area 502. For example, when a comment “‘a programname’ is interesting” of FIG. 29 is selected as a fixed comment, theinput comment setting unit 442 changes the fixed comment to “‘the actualprogram name (e.g., 7 o'clock news, etc.)’ is interesting.”

The cursor displaying unit 434 displays a cursor 504 on the commentcreating screen 500. When the user presses down a predetermined button(e.g., a circular button) after focusing on the comment creating area502 by the cursor 504, the creation screen displaying unit 438 displaysa software keyboard. The user enters an arbitrary character in thecomment creating area 502 by operating the cursor 504 to select anarbitrary key on the software keyboard.

As described above, a fixed comment appropriate for a program that isbeing viewed can be extracted from a plurality of fixed comments andpresented to the user by storing a correspondence relationship betweenprogram genres and fixed comments in advance so as to select a fixedcomment that corresponds to the genre of the program the user isviewing. Also, by automatically setting the fixed comment selected bythe user in the comment creating area, user's burden in creating acomment can be reduced. Such a configuration is particularly suitablefor when a software keyboard is used as a means for entering characters.In other words, when a software keyboard instead of a hardware keyboardis used in entering characters, user's burden in entering characters isgenerally increased. Therefore, by allowing the user to select a fixedphrase, the number of characters entered by the user can be reduced, andthe user's burden can be thus reduced greatly.

Referring back to FIG. 37, when the posting button 506 is pressed downon the comment creating screen 500 (Y in S174), the comment posting unit422 acquires a character string that is entered in the comment creatingarea. The comment posting unit 422 then sets a final posting comment byadding, to the character string, hashtags indicating a program viewingsoftware, a broadcasting station of a program being displayed on theimage display screen 110, a service ID of the program, and an event ID,respectively. The comment posting unit 422 registers the data of thefinal posting comment by transmitting the data to the posting siteserver 18 (S178). When depression of the posting button is not detected(N in S174), S176 and S178 are skipped. When an operation of displayingthe tweet menu is not detected (N in S158), S160-S178 are skipped. Whennone of the broadcasting stations in the broadcasting-station-specificcomment area 458 is selected on the all-TL screen 454 (N in S138 of FIG.33), S140-5178 are skipped.

As described above, by automatically setting an appropriate hashtag fora user viewing a program, all the user needs to do is to enter the maintext of a comment, and the user's burden can be reduced. As describedpreviously, when a software keyboard is used as a means for enteringcharacters, the user's burden can be further reduced.

When the information area 462 is selected by the user on the all-TLscreen 454 (Y in S180), the tag tally unit 424 refers to the data ofcomments posted within the past hour from among comments stored in theacquired-comment storage unit 410 so as to count the number of hashtagsadded to each comment according to a type of the hashtags and identifiesthe number of appearances of each hashtag (S182). In addition todisplaying the information screen, the frequently-appearing tagdisplaying unit 444 displays the top eight frequently-appearing tags ina part of the area of the information screen along with the number ofappearances thereof (S184). In addition to these, the regionalinformation displaying unit 406 displays, in a part of the area of theinformation screen, the number of viewing users of each broadcastingstation in each region (S186). A predetermined hashtag (e.g., “#TVAA” ofFIG. 35, etc.) that indicates a broadcasting station is excluded frombeing counted by the tag tally unit 424 or selected as afrequently-appearing tag by the frequently-appearing tag displaying unit444.

FIG. 40 shows an exemplary information screen as displayed. On aninformation screen 510, a live information display area 450 and aninformation tab 512 that shows that the screen is the information screen510 are displayed. The frequently-appearing tag displaying unit 444displays the information of frequently-appearing tags in the past hourin the frequently-appearing tag display area 514. The regionalinformation displaying unit 406 displays, in abroadcasting-station-specific viewing status displaying area 516, thenumber of viewing users of each broadcasting station in each region.FIG. 40 shows the number of viewing users in association with hashtagsthat indicate respective broadcasting stations. The figure also showsthe total number of the viewing users in each area, that is, the totalnumber of the viewing users for a broadcasting station corresponding toeach region. The cursor displaying unit 434 displays a cursor 518 on theinformation screen 510. The user can display a desired hashtag TL screenby selecting a desired frequently-appearing tag or broadcasting stationtag by operating the cursor 518.

Referring back to FIG. 37, when a frequently-appearing tag is selectedon the information screen 510 (Y in S188), the comment acquisition unit420 transmits a comment acquisition request to the posting site server18 by using, as a search key, the frequently-appearing tag selected bythe user. The comment acquisition unit 420 then acquires a comment towhich the frequently-appearing tag is added from the posting site server18 (S190). The second comment displaying unit 432 displays a hashtag TLscreen that displays a list of comments to which frequently-appearingtags acquired by the comment acquisition unit 420 are added in the orderof the posting time and date. When a frequently-appearing tag is notselected by the user (N in S188), S190 and S192 are skipped. When theinformation area 462 is not selected on the all-TL screen 454 (N inS1803), S182-S192 are skipped. When a live function is not selected tobegin with (N in S130 of FIG. 33), S132 and all the subsequent steps areskipped.

As described above, by displaying a frequently-appearing tag of a postedcomment that is acquired in accordance with a user operation, a hashtagadded to many comments can be presented to a user. For example,regarding comments posted for a relay program of a soccer game, thereare often more comments to which a hashtag such as “soccer” is addedthan comments to which the hashtag of the broadcasting station is added.In other words, displaying a timeline of comments to which a hashtagsuch as “soccer” is added is often more useful for a user thandisplaying a timeline of comments to which the hashtag of thebroadcasting station is added. Presenting a user a frequently-appearingtag allows a candidate for a hashtag, which is useful to the userviewing a program, to be presented, supporting the user to reach auseful timeline. Since comments acquired from the posting site server 18in accordance with a user operation are the population for countinghashtags, a frequently-appearing tag related to comments the user isinterested in can be efficiently presented to the user.

Described above is an explanation of the present invention based on theembodiments. These embodiments are intended to be illustrative only, andit will be obvious to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications to constituting elements and processes could be developedand that such modifications are also within the scope of the presentinvention. An exemplary variation is shown in the following.

A first exemplary variation is now described in detail. Although noparticular reference is made in the above embodiments, when the cursordisplaying unit 434 hides the cursor 476 since no operation on thecursor 476 is detected for a certain period of time on the channel TLscreen 470, the second comment displaying unit 432 may gradually updatesthe timeline displayed at that point for each comment. For example, thesecond comment displaying unit 432 may hide the oldest comment in thetimeline displayed at that point and add a new comment to be displayed,which is posted subsequently to the latest comment in the timeline. Thesecond comment displaying unit 432 may successively display newly-postedcomments by repeating the replacement. More specifically, when commentsare arranged in descending order of the posting time and date in thetimeline, the second comment displaying unit 432 may gradually scroll upthe comments from the display position of a cursor at the time thecursor is made hidden so as to successively display newly-postedcomments. According to this variation, new comments are successivelydisplayed starting from a comment selected by a user, facilitating theuser to find comments (e.g., comments such as replays and citations)that are related to the comment selected by the user. The variation canalso facilitate the user to reselect a comment selected before a cursoris made hidden.

Further, the second comment displaying unit 432 may replace an oldcomment with a new comment in the timeline at a higher speed or scrollup the timeline at a higher speed as the number of comments that areperiodically acquired by the comment acquisition unit 420 increases.This variation allows the user to more easily know whether the number ofcomments posted for a program is large or small in an intuitive mannerand also allows new comments to be more easily presented to the user ina quick manner.

A second exemplary variation is now described in detail. Although noparticular reference is made in the above embodiments, a plurality ofgenres may be assigned to each program with regard to programinformation stored in the program information storage unit 50. Forexample, a genre “news” and a genre “variety” may be assigned to a talkshow program. The fixed-comment storage unit 412 may store a pluralityof genres in association with the same fixed comment. For example, boththe genre “news” and the genre “variety” may be associated with the samefixed comment “that's funny.” When the comment creation supporting unit440 selects a plurality of fixed comments, which are all identical, fora program to which a plurality of genres are assigned, the creationscreen displaying unit 438 may hide either of the fixed comments on thetweet menu screen 490. According to this variation, a situation can beprevented where a task of checking fixed comments by the user becomesunnecessarily complicated due to a plurality of identical fixed commentsbeing displayed on the tweet menu screen 490 and where the user's burdenis increased as a result.

Optional combinations of the aforementioned embodiment and exemplaryvariations will also be within the scope of the present invention. Newmodes of practicing the invention created by combinations will providethe advantages of the embodiment and variations combined.

Therefore, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that thefunction to be achieved by each constituent requirement described in theclaims may be achieved by each constituting element shown in theembodiments and in the modifications or by a combination of theconstituting elements. For example, a comment creation supporting unitdescribed in a claim may be achieved by a combination of the creationscreen displaying unit 438, the comment creation supporting unit 440,and the input comment setting unit 442 that are described in theembodiments.

1. An information processing apparatus comprising: an image informationacquisition unit configured to acquire image information of at least oneprogram among a plurality of programs being broadcast by a plurality ofbroadcasting stations; a comment acquisition unit configured to acquire,from an external posting site, a comment of a viewer by using a tag as asearch key, the comment is a viewer's feedback on the content of aprogram being viewed and related to a tag for grouping with othercomments; and a display processing unit configured to generate data tobe displayed on a screen, the data include image of a program beingbroadcast by a first broadcasting station and at least one comment for aprogram being broadcast by a second broadcasting station different fromthe first broadcasting station.
 2. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the comment is scrolled at a speed basedon the number of posted comments to a broadcasting station.
 3. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at leasttwo comments related to different tags for grouping are simultaneouslydisplayed.
 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,wherein the tag is not displayed while displaying the at least onecomment.
 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1wherein when a single broadcasting station is selected by the user, alist of comments posted for a program being broadcast by the singlebroadcasting station is displayed in such a manner that the postedcomments are displayed in chronological order, the list is updated whena new comment posted for the program being broadcast by the singlebroadcasting station is acquired.
 6. The information processingapparatus according to claim 5 wherein when a specific posted comment isselected by the user from the list of comments, the new posted commentis prohibited from displaying.
 7. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 1 further comprising: a comment creation supportingunit configured to identifies the content of the program being broadcastand presents to the user a fixed comment that is associated with thecontent of the program.
 8. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 1 further comprising: a tally unit configured toidentify the number of each tag for grouping, a frequently-appearing tagdisplaying unit configured to display, as a frequently-appearing tag, atag that ranks a predetermined ranking or higher with respect to thenumber identified by the tally unit, when a specificfrequently-appearing tag is selected by the user, a list of postedcomments related to the specific frequently-appearing tag is displayed.9. An information processing method performed by an informationprocessing apparatus comprising: acquiring image information of at leastone program among a plurality of programs being broadcast by a pluralityof broadcasting stations; acquiring, from an external posting site, acomment of a viewer by using a tag as a search key, the comment is aviewer's feedback on the content of a program being viewed and relatedto a tag for grouping with other comments; and generating data to bedisplayed on a screen, the data include image of a program beingbroadcast by a first broadcasting station and at least one comment for aprogram being broadcast by a second broadcasting station different fromthe first broadcasting station.
 10. A computer program embedded on anon-transitory computer-readable recording medium, comprising: a moduleconfigured to acquire image information of at least one program among aplurality of programs being broadcast by a plurality of broadcastingstations; a module configured to acquire, from an external posting site,a comment of a viewer by using a tag as a search key, the comment is aviewer's feedback on the content of a program being viewed and relatedto a tag for grouping with other comments; and a module configured togenerate data to be displayed on a screen, the data include image of aprogram being broadcast by a first broadcasting station and at least onecomment for a program being broadcast by a second broadcasting stationdifferent from the first broadcasting station.